Interlude-Boots

The rocket drifted toward Archo’s surface agonizingly slowly.

It was a drawback of the resources that had been available to build them. The thrust assemblies wouldn’t tolerate repeated intense firing. Small bursts for maneuvering were pushing it.

So Nemuleki’s rocket was technically in freefall as it closed in on the landing pad. She was doing her best to ignore Tasser’s stoic expression as they dropped toward the surface. The moon’s gravity wasn’t intense, but anything allowed to plummet long enough could land with the force of meteors.

If the engineers had done their math right, the rockets wouldn’t have to cushion their own landing, but the fuselage was equipped with hydraulic shock absorbers just in case. They wouldn't function more than once, but they didn’t really have to.

The Casti woman was equally fascinated and disturbed by the psionic slab Caleb had put in her mind. It was the most distracting thing she’d ever experienced, because there didn’t seem a way to become unaware of it. It was like a new hand, and she couldn’t even begin to try forgetting a hand.

But it didn’t occupy any attention whatsoever.

The rocket thudded into the landing pit, and as soon as the shuddering stopped, Nemuleki pulled the release on her harness and went into action, completely unhindered by the psionic distraction at the edge of her awareness.

Caleb had said there was room for interpretation with them, and she’d found it easy to interpret it as a slab.

A large rectangle of dark stone engraved with drawers that fit into the slab, perfectly smooth. Nemuleki imagined pulling open one of the drawers, putting a sound inside, and sliding it shut.

she and Tasser both sent Ase Serralinitus.

she received back.

There were almost forty Casti in the rocket. Every single one of them had taken up a pistol, poncho, and pack within a minute of landing.

“Alright, masks on!” Yakne shouted. An Asu, he formally outranked Nemuleki and Tasser, but she’d still been marked as a co-commander for the day anyways. Serralinitus had dressed her down energetically and creatively for her choices in the Green Complex, but despite that she had not been demoted.

The rahi reassured herself he wouldn’t bother reprimanding someone who wasn’t worth improving.

So she and Yakne double-checked to make sure all Casti were ready to exit the spaceship. Tasser was their proverbial basket to carry. If Caleb didn’t make it off this moon, Tasser absolutely had to.

This was the tricky part. If something went wrong now, it would make everything else go wrong too.

Tactically speaking, saying they were vulnerable would be gross understatement. The moment they left the rocket, there would be nothing but a few hundred feet of uneven, granule ground between them and the colony superstructure. If the Vorak were in position, every single one of them would be cut down before they ever reached the colony.

Caleb kept using the word ‘landing pad’ to describe their destination, but it wasn’t so much a proper pad as much just ‘the location where they were landing’.

Their rocket had landed as planned in the freight receiving pits outside. Each one was a hundred feet deep and filled with specially manufactured gravel. It would crush and deform acting as a cushion for cargo containers or other thrustless objects landed on the moon.

Or when fully crewed improvised rockets were trying to avoid Vorak military forces who knew they were coming.

The fact that they couldn’t see was encouraging. Through one of just two portholes in the rocket, she could see that dust from their landing had been thrown up everywhere. It would make it a bit harder for the Vorak to shoot them, as well as indicating that there was in fact air outside the rocket.

Hopefully their elegant bit of deception had worked. Ase Serralinitus had negotiated that the Red Sails garrison wouldn’t be told where the Coalition rockets were landing. Only the colony’s administrative governor had been told.

Of course that governor had been told they would be landing elsewhere. Either the governor would violate the agreement and tell the Vorak anyway, in which case the Red Sails would be guarding the wrong spots. Or the governor wouldn’t tell them, and the Red Sails weren’t actually aiming for battle to break out.

In either case, their deception was justifiable or truly harmless.

Or they might have been seen through, and just a handful of Vorak would be able to pick off everyone of them.

Yakne hauled open the hatch to the rocket and there was a quick hiss as the pressure equalized.

The pit was covered by an air-barrier. Thank goodness.

It wouldn’t have been impossible to hold her breathe the whole way there, but the fact that they didn’t have to was reassuring.

They poured out of the rocket, leaping all the way to the ground in fractional gravity. No gunshots rang out as Nemuleki and Yakne led their troops out of the dust cloud.

Whoever was unlucky enough to be manning this span was in for quite the day.

Yakne waved his arm at an opaque window, and gestured toward the cargo doors they were skipping toward.

For a few agonizing seconds, nothing happened and Nemuleki was forced to wonder if they were going to have to break through the cargo doors.

But emergency protocols won out, and someone opened the exterior doors. Nemuleki hopped inside the cargo bay, following Tasser’s spring jumps.

Colony personnel, dock workers or maintenance crew by the look, were already approaching them, visibly upset.

Nemuleki sent Tasser.

Tasser nodded, focusing on his psionics while Nemuleki took a deep breath and steeled herself.

Who was she kidding? Everything today was ‘the tricky part’.

·····

Tasser let Nemuleki and Yakne handle the reception. The fact that it was irate workers and not armed hostiles was reassuring.

It meant the second rocket would land safely too.

Tasser sent them. The other rocket was still miles above the colony, but falling steadily.

Serral returned.

Tasser said.

Serral mused.

Tasser asked.

the Ase repeated.

That figured.

Tasser had expected there to be more to say, but Serral was right. They shouldn’t hurry.

“” Nemuleki said to the group, “”

Yakne was leading them, but Nemuleki’s group split off first. They had the shortest trip.

Cirinsko followed a modular system. The colony was comprised of rectangular cells a kilometer or two long. Each one was covered with massive, sculpted metal arches to hold up the gold panels that kept the dust out. each with its own discrete atmospheric barriers, power distribution, and frame. Transit systems were embeded into the walls of each cell, connecting it to its neighbors. Trams, scrolling footpaths, and maintenence corridors wove through out the colony.

Each module connected to the next, forming a superstructure to house the colony's people and districts.

The superstructure was traversable if you had the right access.

It would have been a lengthy journey on foot.

Unlike the planet below, the moon's gravity didn't demand much thrust to escape. A hundred tiny spaceports and proper launch pads were tucked between cells, some even built into the superstructure's walls.

It would have been risky though. Very easy to get lost or disoriented.

And without cooperation from colony personnel, they would come across too many doors they couldn't open. No, Tasser and company would be forced to go through the urban interiors of the cells.

Yakne led the majority of the group further into the cell on foot while Nemuleki and Tasser’s group broke off, heading along the outskirts of the cell toward the nearest public access point to the adjacent cell.

The cargo port they’d trespassed through to enter the colony connected to one of the freight trams that ran through the colony, but it had been shut down. The public trams had been halted too, in just the last few minutes. Confused Casti were still debarking, taking note of the Coalition ponchos weightlessly jogging by.

Colony officials knew what was happening, and they were shutting down transportation that might have otherwise assisted the Coalition.

Tasser frowned. That actually boded unexpectedly well. Which made him nervous.

It meant the governor had been working with the Vorak from the start, and it meant the Vorak would have been positioned to cover their nominal arrival points.

But then why was anyone out in public?

If the colony governance had been cooperating with the Red Sails, why would the shelter-in-place order not have been broadcast in advance?

Something was very wrong.

he relayed to Nemuleki.

“” she said. “”

·····

Dyn was a consummate professional.

In combat or in surgery, he stayed calm. But even his jaw was clenched as they approached the moon’s surface. Rocket science was, perhaps, one of the sciences that truly made him nervous.

It would be so easy to mis-carry a digit, and have the whole rocket might slam into the gravel pit at eight times the intended speed.

He wanted to be strapped into his couch, ready to brace for impact.

But Caleb and Nai were moving to the bottom of the rocket, and he had needed to follow.

“Is the radar still working?” Caleb asked.

Nai nodded, staying focused on loosening a set of bolts on the hull.

“If anything crops up, let me know. I don’t know how all the different pieces are going to work in your head. I customized a lot of them…any part of it could fail anytime.”

“I will keep you informed,” Nai promised.

Dyn was tempted to ask more. But it was almost certainly related to one of Caleb’s ‘psionics’ and time was short.

The two Adepts did the first part of the work, but once they were through, he would have to close the way behind them. Panels of the bottom had been loosened and machine elements had been pulled away

They were both wrapped up in voidsuits, obscuring the differences between them. To anyone who was less familiar with either of them, they could have passed for the same species.

Nai reached over and twisted a knob on Caleb’s visor, darkening the translucent faceplate into an opaque reflective gold.

“I’m not going to suffocate,” Caleb said, reassuring himself. “How much oxygen do I have, doc?”

“Six hours,” Dyn said. “Don’t depressurize even once you’re in the colony. I know it’s not much, but your suit is technically a viable quarantine, so the governor won’t be able to complain.”

“Right, right,” Caleb said to himself. “Just a spacewalk. You can magnetize to surfaces. You’ll be fine. Unless you screw up.”

He flexed his hands inside the gloves.

Nai had one hand pressed against a hatch, presumably cascading the cavity on the other side.

“Less than a minute now,” Nai said.

“We touch down in less than two,” Serralinitus called from higher up in the rocket.

“Then we need to go now,” Nai said. “Brace yourself for heat. I can’t tell if I cooled it down enough.”

Nai took a heavy bolt adjuster and started undoing the final panel. Once it was free, she and Caleb both squeezed inside the tiny cavity. Dyn and a Casti he didn’t recognize took up the tools and replaced the panel the Warlock and human had just crawled through.

In just a few minutes, they put back the rest of the spare wiring and disassembled rocket engine, finally covering it, bolting the last panel into place.

“We’re set,” Dyn said, poking his head up the hatch.

Serral squinted his eyes a moment, as if concentrating on something only he could see.

“…Confirmed,” the Ase said.

The tools they had used evaporated back into nothing.

A moment later, Dyn heard a sharp hiss from behind the now-sealed panel, depressurizing the other side.

Caleb and Nai were certainly going to be on the rocket when it landed, but not necessarily in it.

Although, depending on who you asked, inside the rocket’s spent engine was as inside as it got.

No one would see the human departing either rocket. As long as he and Nai were swift, they would sneak their way from the rocket’s exterior to the superstructure of the colony before the dust had settled from their landing.

None of the Coalition could afford to stay in the rocket or defend it. The Vorak would probably search the rockets as soon as possible, partially in search for Caleb, partially to check for stragglers.

They would find no one.

Dyn and the other Casti climbed back toward their seats for touchdown.

They were on their own now.

·····

Nemuleki saw they needed to go north. The public tram lines were down, but the lines themselves were still physical access points. Unless emergency seals went into effect, the Coalition could walk right through.

It was there they found the first group of Vorak.

Including Tasser, their VIP, Nemuleki’s group only had six soldiers. And technically they were still on the large side for how many groups Serral had split them into.

Nemuleki ushered her crew to hug the wall, trying to avoid the enemies who’d appeared in their path.

Four Vorak were carrying a cylindrical device into the building nearest the walkway to the adjacent cell on the edge of the colony wall.

Tasser swore under his breath.

“Blackout curtain,” he said, recognizing the device.

Moments later a solid black dome flickered into being around the building, covering the nearby walkway too. Not a single photon would escape it. Looking in from the outside, they couldn’t see anything of what occurred inside the black dome.

The technology was similar in principle to the air barriers. Only instead of affecting gasses, they affected radiation. There was a series of massive curtains over the whole colony, but they were strictly keyed to block ionizing radiation. Nothing in the visible or radio ranges would be blocked.

This opaque barrier was total spectrum though. For this situation, the rak probably configured it so light could still enter the dome. Any soldier inside would be able to see them drawing near.

They did nothing to stop sound though. An automated message started playing too, ordering civilians away from the area.

“They’re cutting off access points,” Nemuleki observed.

“They know where we landed. They don’t know exactly where we’re going,” Nemuleki guessed. “Their only hope is to keep us from moving where we want.”

“So much for the negotiations,” Adden snorted. “They were never going to let us pass.”

“Ase’s orders were clear,” Nemuleki said. “I can ask him again right now, if you want…?”

“How do we get by then?” Adden asked. “Can we afford to go around them and look for another way through?”

The debate was interrupted by a klaxon ringing out through the whole colony.

Everyone stopped, listening to the announcement.

“All Red Sails personnel, this is Marshal’s Adjutant Tox Frebi, your orders are to stand down. Any rak who even spits on any First Contact proceedings will be shaven and strung up on a pole by me personally! There will not be fighting here today!”

The blackout curtain went down immediately and Nemuleki realized they were confirming the broadcast on their radios. The curtain would allow them to receive transmissions, but not make their own.

“Holster,” Nemuleki said, seizing the moment, “and move.”

The Vorak who’d taken over the building spotted them quickly. They’d taken up positions on the first floor.

Nemuleki called out to them.

“We’re under orders not to shoot first,” she shouted.

“…It seems we are too,” the Vorak said, casting an eye towards the klaxons.

The Adjutant’s orders were being broadcast over the colony’s emergency systems instead of the Vorak radios. The orders weren’t prerecorded either. Tox’s voice was barking orders to specific units in certain parts of the colony.

Nemuleki and her squad lightly hopped toward the archway that would take them to the adjacent colony cell. Their landing pad was so close.

It all went wrong when they drew within a few dozen feet of the Vorak.

The klaxon broadcast was cut off mid-sentence and the Vorak radios crackled within earshot.

“Belay that,” a voice growled. “This is Marshal Tispas. Disregard Tox. Sten Ramor has command. His original orders stand: no Coalition gets off this rock.”

For several seconds, everyone stood frozen, unsure of what to do.

The Vorak actually seemed even more shocked than anyone.

But then the same orders were reiterated over the radios by a new voice, Sten Ramor presumably. The klaxons blaring the same message a moment later.

No one’s hand went for a gun at first. Not until another gunshot rang out somewhere else in the colony.

·····

Tasser fired first. From the hip.

The Vorak who’d emerged from the building dove back behind the door, and her allies inside immediately fired at their group.

It had been a mistake to approach like this. Any second the blackout curtain would return and anyone outside wouldn’t be able to see where the Vorak inside were shooting from.

As if cued by Tasser’s worry, a black dome expanded from inside the building, growing to its previous size in a heartbeat.

Tasser threw the thought at Corphica and Nemuleki. He was inside the curtain. If psionic signals were truly analogous to light, then he was dead.

he heard back.

It was utter chaos as skirmishes broke out across the exterior cells of the colony. The Vorak had the numbers advantage overall and the longer fights dragged on, the more time those numbers had to reach superior positions.

But Tasser couldn’t help but grin.

They’d heard him. Psionics could travel through barriers.

Tasser said, firing into the windows of the building—a post office by the sign.

The Vorak had not been given the opportunity to set up a transmitter outside the curtain yet. As long as they wanted to stay behind the curtain and block the passage, they couldn’t call for help. Unless they were ready to modulate their curtain to allow radio signals out…but that would take a minute. Longer, if the Vorak were stressed, under fire.

If the six of them could somehow defeat these Vorak without letting them lower the curtain…then they wouldn’t be able to share information with the rest of the Vorak in the colony.

Tasser had a way for all of them to get through this. Speed would be crucial.

Tasser said.

Corphica realized.

Nemuleki said.

Tasser crouched as low as he could behind a wastebox in front of the building. He was the only one inside the curtain. From within, he could see the rest of his allies’ positions.

Tasser said.

His fellow rahi broke a window to the storefront and jumped inside. Tasser would have winced at the property damage, but there were more pressing concerns.

Corphica poked out from the building to fire at, what from her perspective was a massive opaque orb covering the bottom two-thirds of the post-office.

She only squeezed off two shots, but from Tasser’s angle he could see where they impacted without exposing himself.

Tasser, being inside the curtain had the opportunity to aim his own suppressive fire more precisely. His shots coincided with Corphica’s, both of them finding some of the intact glass of the Vorak’s building.

The Vorak were staying behind their cover. A smart move. They were outnumbered and not particularly pressured to move. Or so they thought.

It was tempting to continue to keep them suppressed while the six of them moved under the archway to the next colony cell, but that wouldn’t stop them from radioing their movements to other Vorak.

No, their best hope was to kill the Vorak inside as quickly as possible and progress without having their positions betrayed.

Nemuleki appeared on the rooftop of the building across the foot path. She took a running, or hopping, start and gently leapt from one rooftop to the next.

Tasser squeezed of another pair of shots to try and cover the sound of her landing. He hadn’t noticed Grami making the same leap until he was already ducking back down.

Tasser said.

Nemuleki said.

Tasser said.

she replied.

Tasser reminded her.

Tasser’s couldn’t hear Corphica out loud with his earwear in place, but the three of them outside the curtain exchanged words and readied themselves.

On ‘two’ Tasser leapt up from his cover and squeezed off as many rounds as he could. He aimed low, at the building’s walls, both to ensure he didn’t hit Nemuleki as she entered the first floor and to draw as much attention as possible. If the Vorak heard Nemuleki skulking closer to ambush them, this would all go even worse.

Adden darted forward too, exposing himself for a few vulnerable moments while he took cover behind a stone fixture in the footpath.

For a split second, the Vorak’s attention would be drawn inexorably outside. Even if only to notice the change in commotion.

Psionics were deadly in part because they were silent.

No matter how quietly you whispered into a radio, you still had to speak. But psionics could be as quick, quiet, and complex as thought itself.

Nemuleki and Grami emerged from the second floor and fired.

“” Nemuleki said.

Tasser warned.

The words came just in time. He watched Nemuleki turn and fire in time as the fourth Vorak emerged from a side door.

Tasser said.

“Grab their radios,” Nemuleki told Grami. “We might be able to hear something valuable.”

The six of them reloaded their weapons, disabled the blackout curtain, and continued under the archway to the next cell.

Nemuleki sent.

Serralinitus replied.

Corphica asked.

Serral reprimanded.

Tasser and Nemuleki sent.

Time was short.