Mark “Coop” Cooper

Location: The Golden City of Luck, Happiness, Prosperity, and Servitude, Hegemony of Peace and Tranquility of Sapient Beings

“Holy Shiiiiiiiiiiiiit!” Coop screamed as he reached the hatch, pushed the grav-sled through, and stepped on nothing but air.

Like any rational being, Coop expected the space port they’d just arrived at to be a physical structure of some sort. Instead, everything around him seemed to be made up of white stuff somewhere in the consistency of clouds. The grav-sled hadn’t registered a difference, but Coop sure as shit did when he stepped out, realized there was nothing beneath his feet, let go of the grav-sled, and then started to plummet to death. His arms wind milled out of instinct, but he knew it wouldn’t do anything. There was nothing between him and oblivion except a thin layer of this cloud stuff that…

Coop didn’t get to finish what thoughts were going through his head because the second his body made contact with the white cloud stuff it hardened. Instead of screaming all the way to his demise, Coop had the breath knocked out of him as he landed chest-first on whatever the hell this stuff was.

Coop’s forehead ended up bouncing off the surface, which left his ears ringing and stars in his vision.

“You’ve got to be shitting me.” The GYSGT was close by, and Coop imagined the woman face palming in embarrassment.

Coop felt his cheeks heat with embarrassment, so he continued to look down for a moment. What he saw was weird shit. If he lifted his head off the ground, if you could even call whatever he was laying on ground, it dissolved back into its wispy, white, cloud-like makeup. However, the moment Coop lowered his nose to touch it, it hardened back up.

When the cloud stuff hardened it looked more like marble than clouds. It was still a white, but veins of gold spread through it. If Coop hadn’t thought he was falling to his death twenty seconds ago, he would have thought it was pretty cool.

“On your feet, Sergeant. We’ve got company.” The SGM was already halfway back into his V4 along with the rest of the SRRT.

Coop scrambled to his feet and started getting his LACS ready. The diplomats were huddled together behind the makeshift perimeter the SRRT had established. Most were looking at the ground as well, and making scientific guesses as to what it was. The most common idea Coop heard was something to do with nanites.

All of the talking stopped when two things emerged from the other side of the area Argo had landed in. A wall of the white stuff seemed to simply dissolve and allowed two beings to enter. Coop was busy squeezing into his LACS, but he got a good look at the two things before he vanished into the darkness of his suit. A few seconds later, the V4 started to boot up, and he had visuals on the ETs again. This time he was getting a lot more data too.

Their greeters were easily five meters tall. They dwarfed even Mike in his LACS, but they didn’t look like anything Coop had ever seen. The closest equivalent he could come up with was a giant jellyfish exterior that contained a thunderstorm. It didn’t do it justice, and from Coop’s limited understanding of biology he wasn’t sure how it was possible, but that’s what it looked like.

His LACS’ sensors were giving him more data. The exterior “skin” of the ET was a proto-plasma a few centimeters thick. Inside that was a swirling mass of black and dark gray that the V4’s neural net was having a hard time identifying. If Coop zoomed in closely, it looked like something was writhing in the vaporous black-gray thundercloud at the heart of the creature, but…

“Shit!” Coop involuntarily stepped back as a fork of blue-white lightening stabbed outward from the creature’s central cloud. The protoplasm parted and gave way to the energy before it hit the creature’s shielding. The spot flared bright blue for a second before the lightening exhausted itself, and the roiling cloud returned to normal.

In Coop’s vision, not his LACS’ HUD, but his vision by way of his IOR, a message appeared.

{Welcome human delegation. We are pleased to have you as our honored guests. Please follow us.}

“Short, sweet, and to the point,” Coop commented, as the five-meter tall ET’s made a small U-turn and headed back the way they’d come. “Now what do we do?”

“I’m receiving a data dump,” the Minister of Commerce stated with barely contained excitement on her face. “Whatever technology they’re using it easily connects with our PADs.”

The ETs were still moving away, but Coop wasn’t going to follow without orders. This place was weird. A floor that wasn’t a floor and then giant jellyfish that threw lightening…it was better if he didn’t draw any attention to himself.

“They are called Stormbreakers,” the Minister informed. “They co-founded this planet with another species over a thousand years ago, and are one of the eight prime species of the Hegemony.”

{Well, that prime species is about to leave us in the dust,} Coop kept his thoughts to himself, but he sent the message to Eve.

“Ma’am.” The SGM inclined his head toward the backs, which weren’t any different than the fronts, of their retreating hosts.

“Go ahead,” LCDR Gold stuck his head out of the hatch. “Petty Officer Aiko and I will secure Argo and meet you once everything is settled.”

“Good thinking, Commander, we’ll contact you.” The Minister and her staff were already on the move.

Coop lengthened his stride to catch up, and take his forward position. Bravo team had taken up a box formation around the delegation. Alpha pushed out another ten meters and was in a diamond formation. The SRRT team had overlapping fields of fire and could quickly get their bulk between incoming rounds and the delegation. Coop was the right side of the diamond while Eve was on point for everyone. Despite being in a hangar that looked a little like a holo-show’s version of heaven, she was keeping her head on a swivel and her weapon at the ready.

Coop had seen that their tour guides had shielding, and he was willing to bet it was a hell of a lot better than theirs.

Still, he did his job and kept an eye out for any threats. Eve reached the door first, and just like for the Stormbreakers, it dissolved in front of her and revealed a hallway.

Coop stopped suddenly as he looked at the hallway. The floor was the same white stuff, but it totally lacked sides and a ceiling. That was curious since his sensors were reading another enclosed space.

{Everything good, Cooper?”}The GYSGT’s question popped into his vision.

{Yeah,} Coop replied as he stepped forward. Eve was already walking confidently down the hallway, but he just had to see what was going on.

Coop stepped into the hallway where the ground solidified with those same golden veins. He reached out to where nothing seemed to be until his hand made contact with something. The whole section of shielding that the Stormbreakers had worked into the architecture of the space port flashed blue.

Coop leaned over and looked down toward the planet. They were at least a few thousand kilometers from the surface, but he still got a pretty good look at the city below him. Sure the building design was weird, but it appeared traffic was universal, and air-vehicles were backed up leading in every conceivable direction.

{Keep moving, Cooper.} The GYSGT was only a few meters back and Eve was way out in front.

Coop took his eyes off the city below and moved forward quickly. He was almost back in position when a glint caught his eye. He looked up, and stopped walking. They weren’t above The Golden City of Luck, Happiness, Prosperity, and Servitude. They were below it.

Stretching as far as Coop could see in both directions was a solid mass of gold. Not the vapor-floors that they were walking on now. It looked like all the gold in the universe had been mined, transported here, and molded into a city that floated up among the clouds.

Activity in the golden city was off the charts. Coop only just watched for a few seconds at the tens of thousands of vehicles moving around like busy bees above them.

Aware that he’d stayed in one place too long he kept on walking, only to stop again when the rest of the diplomats caught sight of the jaw-dropping place above them.

“It can’t be real gold.” Coop overheard on of the diplomats. “There is no way twenty-four carat gold could survive long term at this elevation. This has to be some hybrid building material.”

The man’s comment ruined the experience a little, but Coop was sure there was still plenty to see in this place. After all, they were in the equivalent of the parking garage. They were here to participate in high-level discussions, so he couldn’t wait to see what the view from the penthouse was.

***

Duchess Josephina Barrow

Location: Harper’s Junction, Former United Commonwealth of Colonies, Currently held by the Star Kingdom of Windsor

Josephina stood on the steps of the planetary capitol building. Two lines of red-armored soldiers kept a crowd of tens of thousands at bay along the main boulevard. She’d just completed a speech, recorded and sent to the Commonwealth government on New Washington, but meant for the people of Harper’s Junction.

She’d done her research on the planet when it was assigned as House Barrow’s part of Operation Grand Sweep. She knew resentment was high on the planet. They didn’t like the way the Commonwealth did business, and they didn’t allow the military in their space for that reason. Thus, when the battle began, she ordered Ides of March to keep the damage to a minimum. Instead of destroying Harper’s Junction’s small navy, they’d merely crippled them. Loss of life had still been significant, but that was the cost of admission in naval battles.

The understrength battalion on the ground had been a tougher nut to crack. With time to dig in and set booby-traps and ambushes, almost two dozen of House Barrow’s lancers had lost their lives before the battalion was forced to surrender. Whatever the Commonwealth’s fledgling trading agreements with the Hegemony, it hadn’t trickled down to Harper’s Junction. The battalion’s armaments were now obsolete, and they only had the success they did by massing fire on single targets in exchange for massive losses of their own. Josephina had to give the Major commanding the Commonwealth forces credit where it was due. He fought bravely until the end.

Now her House’s forces were in control, but she still faced the indisputable fact of interplanetary warfare. There was no way she had enough troops to control the entire planet. Ides of March and her House’s other ships were in orbit to provide fire support, but she only had enough troops to provide a small presence in the major cities. What she needed to do was win the hearts and minds of the people. She didn’t need them to fight for her, just not fight against her when the Commonwealth counterattack eventually came. She’d decided to do that the old-fashioned way.

She brought her sword up high and swiftly chopped downward. The nano-blade’s molecular edge cut through the man’s neck like it was made of tissue paper. Blood spurted from the stump of the former planetary governor’s neck, while she kicked the head down the steps of capitol building. There was silence for a moment before the crowd started to cheer.

The former governor was unpopular with the regular man and woman on the street. He was thought to be in the pockets of the corporation and the bureaucrats back on New Washington. He absolutely was, and Josephina ending his life might bring her a little more credibility in the eyes of the population.

As the stench of shit from the governor’s voided bowels wafted through the air, she ordered the people to return to their homes. They would be allowed to live as they always did, just with new leadership. Behind her, the Commonwealth flag was lowered and replaced by the Kingdom of Windsor’s flag, and below that, the crest of House Barrow.