ON THE ROAD TO THE RITZA ACADEMY
LIEGEDEN, EMPORIA
FEDERATED SUNS
17 APRIL 3150
1205 HOURS
The long way back to the academy was made longer by the damaged Rifleman and Catapult. The lance moved slower than any of them wanted to, and everyone assumed there was going to be an ambush from some quarter. The Locust and Commando continued to keep sensors going, looking for a trap that didn’t actually seem to be there.
Jasper rounded the back half of his circular pattern behind the lance and twitched as a familiar heat signature appeared, then disappeared. He paused, waiting for the sensors to activate again. “Menard, I…” He stopped as the sensors remained quiet.
“Roux? Repeat. I didn’t get that.”
“Sorry, Commander. Jumping at ghosts. Thought I saw something.” He stared at his sensors, willing them to blip again.
“Be sure.”
“Yes, Commander. Doing a second back sweep before I return to the regular patrol.”
“Acknowledged.”
Jasper piloted the Commando in a wide U-turn, looking for the heat signature. It could have been an artifact of the sensors passing over something with a higher temperature than its surroundings. Anything from a barnyard animal to a burn barrel to a vehicle fire. Or another ’Mech, he thought.
Still, his sensors remained quiet.
After a second sweep, he shook his head and sped back towards his lance. “I’m back, Commander. It was nothing. An artifact of the sensors hitting a hot spot.”
“You’re sure?” Delany asked.
He didn’t have the energy to be irritated at the question. “Yes, ma’am.” After the high of putting a serious dent into the enemy’s infantry, and the adrenaline surge of fighting, then escaping the Kuritan lance, his body felt like jelly. He’d had the brief fight-or-flight surge when he thought he’d seen the enemy ’Mech heat signature, but that was gone now.
Just as he formed back up, his comms came to life. “Patrol lance, what’s your location?”
It was Lady Sana. Delany answered. “About five klicks north of the academy, Lady Sana. We’re on our way home. We were successful.”
“Near the Vengalil estate?”
“Yes, Lady.”
Jasper felt his heart speed up and looked around. From the sound of Lady Sana’s voice something bad was happening. He looked for enemies.
“I order you and your lance to proceed to the Vengalil estate immediately. Berth in the underground ’Mech bay. It’s on the left-hand side of the manor house, and looks like a barn. It’s been hardened. Use the code 31-33-05-01 to get in. Go now.”
Delany paused too long.
“Do you understand me, Cadet?” Lady Sana’s voice had the hard clip of a leader making choices she didn’t want to have to make, but did anyway.
Jasper, having just been at the Vengalil estate, sent the coordinates to the other ’Mechs.
“Yes, ma’am. I do. We’re a minute out.”
“You have three minutes, tops. Get there, get under cover now.”
They all moved as one, the Locust in the lead, the Commando next and the two larger ’Mechs bringing up the rear.
“Dencourt, get that ’Mech bay open!”
“On it,” Mia said and sped away.
By the time he’d reached the Vengalil estate, seconds before the other ’Mechs, Mia had gotten the ’Mech bay unlocked with the access code but, the Locust, lacking arms and grasping hands, could not open the wooden doors. Jasper moved in and hooked a hand around one of the handles and pulled. The wooden barn doors were a façade. The hardened, powered door behind them was already rolling back.
“Get inside. Find a cradle, or at least a place to stand,” Jasper ordered.
Mia didn’t move. “They’re doing it again.”
He knew what she was talking about. They were being shelled again. He knew it as well as she did. He didn’t even bother to look up. “Get inside. Make sure there’s room for the Rifleman and Catapult.” This was the point that Jasper made his own choice. He had no idea how big the bay was with part of it being underground. But he would be the last one in. If he didn’t fit, that was the choice he was making, and he knew it.
Both barn doors were open by the time the heavier ’Mechs came pounding into view. He waved his arm, beckoning them in, not telling anyone what his plan was. There was no point. Time was not on their side. He could see dots in the air. Bombs headed to Emporia.
Either that meant Nadine had succeeded and the Draconis Combine was getting revenge…or she had not, and they were punishing Emporia for the attempt. It didn’t matter either way.
“Roux, get in here. I’m shutting the door.”
“Yes, Commander.”
The ’Mech bay door was already rolling shut as Jasper squeezed the Commando into the bay, pressing up against the Rifleman’s autocannon as the four ’Mechs maneuvered in the darkness of the unfamiliar ’Mech bay.
Just before the hardened bay door sealed shut, Delany radioed, “We’re in the bay, Lady. The ’Mechs are as safe as they can be.”
There was no answer.
OKINAWA-CLASS DROPSHIP ENDEAVOR’S RUN
LOW ORBIT, EMPORIA
FEDERATED SUNS
17 APRIL 3150
1207 HOURS
Nadine waited on tenterhooks as her escape pod was piloted into the Endeavor’s Run cargo bay and strapped into place. She could see one of the other escape pods through the window and almost threw herself out of her pod as the door was open.
Her intended path—to get to Lyric—was halted in a sudden jerk as she exited. A private held her in an iron grip. He adjusted his grip from her ankle to her arm, moving her about with ease. “To keep you from floating off into the cargo bay like an errant piece of dust,” the private, with Rule stenciled on his left chest, explained at her confused look.
Nadine saw that James and Lyric were being similarly escorted from their escape pods. “Oh, yes. Thank you.” Once she knew that her classmates were safe, she went limp and allowed herself to be propelled through the bay and to one of the exiting tunnels.
She figured that, beyond the need to corral the cadets to keep them from flopping around like overgrown puppies, there was a good chance they were seconds from slapping cuffs on them until the DropShip crew could be certain that they were indeed cadets and not crafty saboteurs looking to steal the Dropship.
Fair enough, Nadine thought. She grinned at Lyric and James, happy to be alive. Both of them grinned back. The three cadets were silent as they were maneuvered through the ship. It was easier to not attempt to help. The crew was far more experienced with the weightlessness of space, and they had a clear destination in mind.
That destination was Captain Morse’s ready room, just off the bridge of the ship. There were no seats. Just a screen to orient themselves around and jutting handholds to stabilize themselves with.
Left alone for the moment, Lyric and Nadine hugged each other, then pulled James into the mix. After that, they floated apart, but stayed near each other. Nadine hooked an arm around one of the protruding handholds to keep her relatively stable. Lyric and James did the same.
“What happened?” Lyric asked as she settled in.
James shook his head. “Henry was watching Sotheby. He typed something. Henry launched himself at the man and got shot. I tried to help and got pistol whipped. It happened so fast.”
Nadine saw that his cheekbone had swollen twice its normal size and was turning an ugly shade of purple. She realized that Lyric and James were both covered in blood. Looking down at herself, she saw that she also had splotches of blood all over her clothing. “Damn. We look like hell. I’m surprised they didn’t just toss us in the brig. I wouldn’t trust us at first glance.”
As she tried to straighten herself, the door opened, and Captain Morse came in upside down. He was a middle-aged man in an AFFS coverall uniform designed for space. He didn’t bother to orient himself to them. “Which one of you is in charge?”
Nadine raised her hand. “I am, Captain. It was my idea and my plan. It’s all on me.” She flipped herself over to be eye-to-eye with him.
Captain Morse nodded. “Cadet Roux?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Are your people hurt?”
Nadine shook her head, then paused. “Cadet Radcliff was injured in the fight, but none of the blood is ours.”
“I see,” said the Captain, clearly not understanding what happened at all. “I think you and I need to have a private conversation, Cadet Roux.”
“Yes, sir.”
As she followed him out of the room, she heard James ask, “Are we under arrest?” and Lyric answer, “Not yet.” If Nadine had her way, none of them would be, but if anyone of them needed to be arrested, she’d try to make sure it was just her. Only time—and her conversation with the captain—would tell.
Captain Morse took her to another office. “Sorry about the lack of gravity. We didn’t have cargo to help with the gravity maneuver, nor do we have the fuel to spend on it. Now, explain how you got in the escape pods.”
“Yes, Captain.” Nadine thought about how to begin. “Specifically, the escape pods, sir? There’s an awful lot to tell you…”
“Start with as close to today as possible. I’ll ask questions when I need to. Right now, I’m going to have to explain how three cadets ended up in my DropShip.”
Nadine nodded. She succinctly summarized the ongoing war and Baron Vogel’s order to fight and make Emporia not worth it. “And then I had the idea that if we took out one of the enemy’s DropShips, that should hurt them enough to make them leave. Once they started bombing us on Hoff, they didn’t stop. That’s what they were going to do to Emporia. I know it. I couldn’t think of any other way to make them leave.”
The captain had kept a neutral face until she got to the idea of using a commercial DropShip to destroy a military one. His eyes hardened and narrowed. Then he rolled his hand in the air for her to continue.
Nadine did, explaining how she and the rest got on the Lady Errant and how Sotheby had changed the plan and betrayed them. That he was going to eject an escape pod with the cadets in it to be picked up by the Draconis Combine. That they’d then overpowered him and enacted Nadine’s plan.
He held up a finger. “You caused the DropShip collision?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How?”
“Linked escape pod deployment at the correct acceleration.”
He thought about it, frowning. “Did you set off the deployment?”
“No sir, that was Cadet Henry Cobb. He sacrificed himself to make sure my plan worked. He insisted. He was already dying.”
Captain Morse waved a hand in the air like he was erasing her words. “No. There was no plan to crash a civilian DropShip into a military one. You were stowaways attempting to get help. Sotheby locked each of you into the escape pods and set them off himself, not realizing what that would do to his ship’s trajectory.”
Nadine was dumbfounded. “Sir?”
“Repeat after me…you were locked in escape pods, and Sotheby ejected them.”
She paused, still unsure.
Captain Morse squeezed the bridge of his nose with two fingers. “Cadet, please.”
Nadine nodded. “We were each locked in an escape pod. Sotheby ejected them all at once. I blacked out. When I woke up, the Lady Errant had crashed into the enemy…Draconis Combine DropShip.”
He relaxed. “Very good. I’m so glad to hear that you didn’t break a centuries-long code of honor that could turn this border skirmish into an all-out war between the Draconis Combine and the Federated Suns. That an errant civilian captain did the deed, and it was on accident.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And I’m so glad your peers will agree with you.”
She nodded, knowing she could count on both James and Lyric to back her up. “Yes, sir. I’ll need to talk to them.” She paused. “But, sir, the Draconis Combine bombed us. They targeted the civilian capital city and my academy.”
Captain Morse grimaced. “War on the border…”
The communications speaker in the room came to life. “Sir, you’re needed on the bridge.”
He glared at the voice. “Can’t it wait?”
The speaker, undaunted by a look they could not see, said, “No, sir. They’ve begun shelling the planet.”