2. Rending of metal
The large xithricite roid was slowly tumbling in the hive bot infested sector, unremarkable and ignored by just about everyone. Which was precisely how the Serco Long Range Recon Patrol known as the Lurkers liked it. When someone in Skycommand had first suggested creating a forward operations base inside the enemy's territory, he had been deemed insane and sent to the Tuol Sleng re-education facility of Sol II. However, the idea refused to die and eventually someone with enough brass on their shoulders and a membership of the elite Special Operations Division suggested the same. He received a medal, a promotion and responsibility to make it work. Through six months of top-secret work, the patrol base was finished, only slightly over budget, a mere three hundred and nine percent. It had been home to the Lurkers for about a month now, and they were supposed to stay in the base for another month before being replaced in place by their sister unit.
The mission had been to snatch stray traders and miners in bot infested areas and pump these for information as well as provide a collection point for any spy's inside Itani space. Thus far they had some success, but no big hit. That was hopefully about to change.
###
"Trade ship "Mental Splinter", you are cleared inbound on vector delta 390, speed 40 m/s to docking bay alpha three. Welcome back."
The Space Traffic Controller's voice crackled over the background radiation that was customary in Cantus. The main star, a type G-2 yellow star was orbited by a white dwarf that was wreaking havoc on the wormhole alignments from time to time. Still, Cantus was really not a true binary star system but a trinary system. The last star, a brown dwarf, was in the process of getting subsumed by the white star thus providing a lot of radiation throughout the system. This had two effects; one was that the background noise level was much higher than in any other system in known space, the second was the high level of sterile deep space workers. As a matter of fact, only about one in ten adult local inhabitants were not sterile making Cantus the In Vitro fertilisation capitol of known space.
Hasdrubal ignored the background noise and moved as the STC had told him into the docking bay. He was a known face around here; his usual stock of Verasi speciality products a nice break from the imported freeze-dried food from Eo. The Verasi koffee and the Helio Mists were especially sought after and fetched a very nice price. This time he had even chanced it and brought some Dau fashion items, only a couple of crates but it would show if there was a market for it.
He noticed a ring of exotic radiation and activated the combined scanner/camera in that direction to collect all the data he could on the ship. Probably nothing, but you could never tell what the spooks liked back home.
###
Taerow piloted the Valkyrie slowly towards the jump-point, trying to get a feel for it from the remote position. He had piloted remotely before, but never liked it. Something was missing, something non-tangible but nonetheless missing. Intuition maybe? Anyway, he didn't want to be inside this particular Valkyrie at any cost so he would have to get used to it. He activated his engine and jumped the pre-planned series of random jumps until he was in the sector where the test was about to take place. The six Itani Centurion Border Guardians as well as the six IDF Valkyrie Vengeance were waiting for him although they too were empty and remotely piloted. Taerow sent a message to the Omega Tech to activate. He was a good pilot, but these odds were insane; nonetheless, he boosted towards the ships and picked a Valkyrie as his first target.
The enemy pilots moved out into a half globe to allow all the ships to fire at him at once thus reduce him to cinders in mere seconds. He reached the focal point of the globe and the pilots fired their various energy weapons towards him. He flinched and expected a cut-off when his ship would be reduced to plasma and scraps, but nothing happened. Instead, he drew a targeting solution on the nearest ship. He fired his three guns across the ship, making neat fist sized holes in the front of it. The pilot of the targeted ship tried to avoid but due to the surprise of Taerow's Valkyrie surviving the fusillade of fire, he hesitated for a second. That was enough for the neutrons to drill a hole straight through the ship and short out the battery. Flying through the explosion, Taerow turned and faced the other eleven ships that at no point had ceased firing at him. He looked at his damage controls, all green at 100%. He stopped his forward movement and stayed still in one spot. Still no damage to the ship. He started picking the attackers off until only four were left. Then they started fleeing with Taerow in close pursuit, picking them off one by one. At last he was the only ship present in the sector. A message popped up on his HUD, "RTB", and Return To Base.
He turned and jumped for Tellus station, still marvelling at the complete unscathed Valkyrie. He docked and disconnected from the VR gear. He looked at the internal camera that displayed the VR rigs of his opponents and started shaking. He felt nauseous and sick, so very sick. He got up and walked to the door but never reached that far before he started vomiting. He had just fought against and killed 12 of the finest fighters from the elite Swift Wind squad without taking a single hit.
###
Captain Asteroth observed the new recruits as they exerted themselves beyond what would be humanely possible. As a matter of fact, they did feats of strength, dexterity and stamina that could potentially kill a regular unmodified human, what the recruits called with barely hidden contempt, human norms. Still, the Captain was not satisfied with the effort shown by the recruits. He nodded to the Gunnery Master Sergeant who turned the test machines off. Asteroth activated his direct coms implant and addressed the recruits.
"I have good news and bad news. First off, you have all graduated the same tests that the applicants to our glorious Sky Command Fighter Training programme has to achieve in order to get a chance to serve as fighter pilot."
The recruits looked at each other, most of them letting a small grin cross their features while gasping for air. Everyone knew how cruel the test for fighter pilot training was, or had at least read about it.
"The second thing is that you have all failed my test. If you want to be a pilot, join the pilot programme. You are here because you want to be the best, because you want to join the Serco Special Operations Division. And tiddly winking along on my training course is NOT the way to pass. You will all run it again. Begin."
The recruits looked at each other, and then began running the course once more, this time giving it every thing they had. The Master Sergeant dialled the setting to the hardest and fastest possible and watched the recruits run. One recruit didn't duck fast enough after vaulting over a wall and got hit by a tree log crushing his abdomen in the right side; another missed his jump and landed awkwardly breaking his legs several places. Eventually the two injured had crawled over the finish line and the Master Sergeant turned the course off. He pointed to one of the recruits that had cheated. It was not a big thing, he didn't touch with both feet where he was supposed. Undoubtedly there had been others that had cheated, but that was beside the point. It was the fact that he had been caught cheating that pissed Asteroth off. He exited to the recruits, unholstered his heavy needle gun and walked over to that particular young man he had spotted.
"You cheated."
He shot the recruit in the leg and calmly holstered his gun again. The shocked troopers stayed in a loose huddle around the now three injured recruits and looked at Asteroth.
"Kids, go and join something else, none of you have what it takes. Dismissed to the recruitment officer."
The recruits turned and walked away, helping the injured along.
Asteroth walked in to the Master Sergeant and grabbed the paper readout, correlating it with the mental readouts.
"Hmm, I see volunteer 16 and 21 were good enough. Make sure they get kicked out and abducted on the way. I need them in a week Gunny."
"Zur, I will make it happen."
Asteroth nodded and walked out to his waiting hovercraft. Enough of the fun, back to the slavery and boredom of paperwork.
###
Ruteli finished his pre-flight check of the dove blue Vulture and signed her out with the dock master. He took the holo of his wife that he always carried and placed it on the small front left side window. Even though it blocked the view in that particular direction, it still gave him strength to know why he was pulling these extra hours. The convoy formed up outside Oscree garden and he launched to join them. He smiled; soon he would be so much closer to giving Edia what she wanted most.
