I’ll never forget the day the world changed. I’d put in my request to Moses the previous day for a new hydraulic system for the next generation bulk freighter my division was working on. None of the old versions would quite cover the needs of this particular design.

Moses’ reply was short. “Please standby for response.”

That was certainly unusual, but it was the end of the workday so I didn’t think much about it. Maybe Moses had a high workload right then. I spent the last worry-free day of my life at home with my family, oblivious to the doom that bore down upon us all.

The next morning I saw the error message on my monitor.

Error_Code_000M1:

Node_435:A17:

Error_Code_004RZ:

There are times in your life when you first get word of some horrible tragedy. These moments are seared forever into the memory, frozen for you to relive for the rest of your life.

I can still remember the fly buzzing around my head. The squeak of the chair the next cubicle over as my office partner saw the message and stood in surprise.

It is the moment every man will remember until the end, like the diagnosis of a terminal illness or the pronouncement of a death sentence. I called my wife and talked in hushed whispers, wondering what it meant. By mid-day, stock markets were in free fall, and by the next, Earth had gone strangely quiet.

Moses, the intellect under which mankind had blossomed for a century was gone. The world had changed, and nothing would ever be the same.

Ganzorig Geraldson

Ship Systems Engineer at Ceres Space Works

Died 21 AM

The gravel crunched beneath Matthew’s boots as he stepped out of the stolen crawler and onto the street. He made sure his poncho fell to the side so that the two cartel men saw his revolver. It wasn’t a threat as much as it was a reminder that they were on a level playing field. The subtle flicker of the environmental shield behind him cast a few faint shadows on the road ahead. It was a black night on Europa. Jupiter eclipsed the sun, casting the entire moon in darkness. For the next several hours, the only light on the Slaver’s Moon was man made.

It was more than enough time.

They shined flashlights at him. “Easy there, friends,” Matthew said and waved a cartel badge at them. “From Nuevo Lima. Following a bounty.”

“Bounty? We don’t get a lot of free traffic through Villa María. Just slaves that work the fields, their handlers, and a few free folk under cartel pay. Doubt you’ll find who you’re looking for.”

“So I’ve heard. We’ve also got a tip that a big score will be passing through. What’s a man to do with conflicting information?” He reached back into the crawler and grabbed a tablet, flicking its screen on. They looked at the picture of Yvonne’s face and details of her bounty as well as a hasty description of the alleged tip. Why lie when a truth would do the job just as well?

The second guard lowered his flashlight. “That is a score. Afraid you’ll be disappointed, though. We’ll pass it on to HQ that you’ll be in town. Let me get the number off your badge…”

A few minutes later, Matthew drove on past the checkpoint. For a moment he regretted staging the operation during the eclipse. The fields and countryside around him were utterly black, save for the pinprick lights of watchtowers. It was a pity he wasn’t even going to be able to see it. But this was land he knew, a place he’d spent years of his life. Ahead of him, the lights of Villa María burned in the night sky. Bigger and brighter than he remembered, the city now had a wall around it.

He parked by one of the gates and was greeted by another set of guards. Thankfully they’d already been commed and were expecting him. After a few more formalities, he set into town on foot.

The streets were deserted at this late hour after curfew. Only a few cartel men loitered at the street corners, smoking cigarettes. Gone was the festive atmosphere of the old Villa María, the Argentinian heritage.

Matthew walked with an easy gait, though his heart was sick. He had a job to do. His first target was a bunker tucked away in the heart of town. It took some work to break into it without tripping the alarm, but it was nice of them to have everything he needed in one location. Couldn’t count on that in a bigger colony. He planted two surprises and got out of there before something went wrong and he was discovered.

He pulled his comm out of his pocket and flipped it on as he hurried away from the bunker. “We’re green,” he said.

The comm returned with two acknowledgments, one from Yvonne, and one from Commandant Ortega.

There was no turning back now. Meteor group was on their way and the Sparrow would be preparing to move into position.

Matthew walked toward the part of town that contained the slave barracks. Once a residential district on the east side of town, most of the colorful old houses had been demolished for long concrete buildings. The few remaining residences in this area probably housed the foremen and other higher-ranking cartel members. He wasn’t going to find what he was looking for in one of those.

The first barracks in the district was clearly labeled Women 1A. He was stopped just inside the entrance as a guard checked his badge and called it into HQ.

“I checked ‘em all in myself tonight,” he said. “I don’t like the insinuation that you don’t think I do my job.”

Matthew shrugged. “Or else maybe I know just how clever the desperate can be. Let me through. It won’t take long. Either she’s here, or she’s not. And if she’s not, maybe someone has seen her. The women might try and take care of a stray.”

The guard chewed the short stub of his cigarette. He set it aside and extinguished it. “Fine. Watch yourself though. You turn your back on the wrong group and they might just tear you apart. It’s happened before.”

“I know how to take care of myself,” Matthew said, his hand resting on his revolver.

The guard shrugged and flipped a switch and picked up a microphone. “Rise and shine, ladies. Surprise inspection.” His eyes flicked to Matthew. “Ten minutes.”

Matthew nodded and pushed past him, making a point to shoulder into him harder than necessary. The guard gave him a look, but opened the inner door’s electronic lock and Matthew entered the barracks proper. In his mind, he replayed as many of the faces of the women of Villa María as he could remember. He was going to need an accomplice that trusted him to get the ball rolling.

The Women 1A barracks was a single long hall broken by doors leading into bunk rooms. Crew leads were assembling in the hall. The bags under their eyes made it obvious that most had been woken from sleep by the inspection call. To Matthew’s dismay, not all had even bothered to make themselves quite decent. The crew leads turned to face him with mixed boredom, hatred, and exhaustion. Hence the need to find a familiar face.

He cleared his throat. “Just looking for a fugitive. I’ll need to check your rooms and I’ll be on my way.”

One by one he searched the rooms. He walked past the bunk beds in silence as women glared at him, hoping to see someone he knew. Hueso Rojo had mostly been after the arable soil the town sat on. Its people were as expendable as they were replaceable. The crew had thought that men would be far more likely to be moved around to other towns by the cartel as needed. Ultimately, that was why they had decided to check the women’s barracks and use Yvonne’s face. It was only a guess and Matthew began to regret it more and more as he invaded each room’s privacy.

Until the fourth room when he got lucky. A woman with graying hair, a face he knew.

She stared passively ahead and didn’t even looked up at him, ready for him to be gone so she could get back to sleep.

He squatted in front of her. “Jorgelina,” he said gently.

Her eyes focused on him and went through stages of disbelief, shock, and then finally settled on anger.

“Wait. Don’t say anything just yet. I’ve… I’ve come back. I’m taking every slave out of this town. But I’m going to need your help.”

Her eyes narrowed and then filled with tears. The other women of the crew began to congregate around them, concerned that Matthew was bothering one of their own. He stepped back and showed his hands. “Once, long ago, I was this town’s priest,” he said, addressing the whole group now. “It took a long time for me to find my way back. I’m going to free all of you.”

The crew leader looked at Jorgelina. “This man who he says he is?”

She nodded, then looked at her feet. Matthew imagined that she was thinking about Enrique. “He was our Padre,” she whispered.

The crew leader, a tall woman with deep olive skin, crossed her arms over her tank top. “Hope you’ve got friends.”

Matthew nodded. “They’re moving into position now. When I call for it, there’s going to be plenty of distraction. I’m going to need help mobilizing the barracks for evacuation during the chaos.”

“You came to the right barrack then,” Jorgelina said, jumping to her feet. “I know all the crew leads. If I’m with you, they’ll follow.”

Maybe this was going to work after all. “I’ll be back soon,” he said. “When the noise starts, be ready.” He turned to leave and stopped in the doorway to the main hall. “I’m sorry it took me so long.”

Jorgelina didn’t answer for a moment and Matthew began to wonder if she was going to at all. Of all the people of this town, this was the one who’s forgiveness he deserved the least.

“Better late than never,” she said. “Go.”

As he walked down the hall, he pulled out his comm again and whispered, “Bring the shock and awe.”

The speaker above Abigail’s head crackled “Separation in T minus thirty seconds. Shock and Awe, get ready for a ride.”

“About time,” Abigail grumbled. She and Grace had been strapped down to this stupid pod for far too long waiting on Matthew to get his act together and call for them. She craned her neck and could just barely see the top of the girl’s helmet, where she was secured in a similar position. “You okay over there?”

“Are you kidding, this is amazing!” Grace bubbled. “I’m trying to figure out which one of us is Shock and which one of us is Awe.”

“Separation in T minus fifteen seconds.

Abigail frowned at her faceplate. “Grace, this is serious. And dangerous.”

She was quiet for a few seconds. “I know.”

“Separation in T minus five seconds.”

Was the enthusiasm her way of dealing with fear? What the hell were they thinking taking a kid into a warzone anyway? Matthew was supposed to be the prudent one. Why hadn’t he vetoed this?

“Separating meteor pod now. Godspeed.”

There was a cracking noise as their pod was pushed clear of the Swiss Guard patrol ship with explosive bolts. The view was… astounding. Abigail had never even heard of a meteor pod before Matthew had proposed using one for the mission. Little more than a cone-shaped heat shell with a few maneuvering thrusters, it was the wildest way to get planetside that Abigail had ever heard of. She and Grace were strapped to the top of the cone, staring at the receding ship and ten thousand stars beyond.

The meteor pod fired its steam thrusters to better align its drop towards Villa María, then began a long burst of steam to give speed towards the moon. If they were dropping onto a larger target, they could let gravity do the job, but Europa was small enough that an unpowered descent would take too long.

“You can be Shock I think,” Grace said, through the comm. “You’ll hit first and I’ll be the follow-up, so that makes the most sense.”

“I don’t think that was meant to be taken literally,” Abigail said. “You know, the bad part about this is we don’t get a good view of the surface on the way down.”

“Isn’t the other side going to get a little crispy?”

“Yeah, for the last few seconds of the drop when we hit the environmental shield,” she said. “I don’t think Europa has enough atmosphere on its own to make much fire.”

The ship had long ago disappeared from sight. They must have been going a lot faster than she realized. She went through the landing procedure in her mind one more time. She and Grace had been practicing it for days. They rode in silence for a few minutes.

“I hope we win,” Grace said.

Abigail sighed. “Me too.”

“Shock and Awe, you are T-minus ten seconds from the shield. Expect a bump”

Wow, that was a faster descent than she expected. If she could just see how close they were to the surface she’d feel a lot better about…

There was a bone-jarring kick as the meteor pod pierced the shield and a deafening roar as they hit the atmosphere. Fire and red-hot plasma licked around the edges of their cone.

“That’s more like it,” she grunted in satisfaction. She could only imagine how much fun a drop over Mars would be.

Grace might have been squealing in excitement, but it was hard to hear over the sudden thunder of the braking thrusters. They would be on the ground in just a few seconds. The gee forces pressed them hard into the shock-absorbing cradles as the pod slowed its thunderous descent.

Abigail heard a mechanical sound beneath her that signified the pod was lowering its landing legs. A trio of drogue parachutes deployed above their heads to further slow their break-neck plummet. That meant they only had a few seconds now. The roar of the braking rocket intensified and a proximity warning chimed through their comm.

The meteor pod hit the ground far softer than its namesake, but still with teeth chattering force. And with that their descent was over. Their restraints released and Abigail was on her feet in less than a second trying to get her bearings. They’d landed just outside the main gate, right on target. Lights were shining in their direction from a pair of guard towers.

No time to waste. “Grace. You good?” She reached into the central storage compartment of the pod and retrieved her shield and the special harness they’d spent several days fashioning.

“Never been better. What a ride!”

“Glad you’re happy, but it’s about to get ugly. Let’s do this like we planned.”

Grace crawled to her and helped her strap the harness on. “Kneel down, I’ll get the last… There.”

“You ready?” Abigail asked. She heard shouting in the distance. Time was almost out.

“Not really,” she said, shaking her head, “but there are a lot of people relying on us.” She climbed into the harness on Abigail’s back and strapped herself in. “Okay, I’m in,” she said, nearly in Abigail’s ear. She’d taken her helmet off and clipped it to the harness.

Abigail stood to her feet. It was time to move.

“Come down with your hands above your head!”

They turned. Nearly two dozen men were approaching the meteor pod. Every one of them had a gun pointed at the pair. Abigail smiled. “Or what, you’ll shoot us?” She jumped off the pod as lightly as she could. Grace should be fine in her harness, but she wasn’t going to make it rough on her just to show off. “You’d think you guys have never seen a pair of ladies drop out of orbit before,” she said straightening and turning on the guards.

As one, they took a step back and leveled their weapons at her.

Abigail never got tired of that reaction.

“Stand down now, or we open fire,” the leader said, his voice practically cracking in fear.

“And why would that worry us?” Abigail asked.

The man lifted off the ground and began to struggle as Grace pulled him close and held him in the air. Abigail could just see the cold blue light of the bracelet reflecting off her shoulder armor.

“Shoot them! Shoot them!” the man practically screamed.

The semicircle of thugs opened fired. Bullet’s shattered as Grace’s other bracelet glowed red. Molten metal droplets sprayed in all directions as the miracle’s field protected Grace and most of Abigail as well. They’d done some careful testing over the last few days and discovered as long as Grace was strapped in her harness, her bracelet would cover everything but Abigail’s legs.

Thankfully, in the chaos of the moment, the guards were aiming for center of mass. Grace threw their leader at one wing of the semicircle and Abigail plowed into them shield first. Between the grav plate in the shield and Grace tossing them around like rag dolls, it was over in just a few seconds. Those that weren’t seriously injured turned tail back toward the lights of town.

“You okay still?” Abigail asked.

“I’m still here,” the girl said. Her voice sounded a little shaken, but there was also a grim resolve in it. “We sticking to the plan?”

Abigail nodded. “It’s time for Shock and Awe to make some noise.”

Matthew watched as the fireball carrying his crewmates out of the sky disappeared behind the buildings. A few minutes later, distant gunfire cracked through the night, and he knew it was time to go. He stepped out of the dark alley into the street. Cartel members were hurrying down the lamp lit road toward the commotion. Word was out that there was trouble and deployment orders were flying.

That suited him just fine.

He walked the few blocks back to the barracks district. The street was now completely empty. He pushed open the door to Women 1A.

The guard leaped to his feet. “Hey! You shouldn’t be here. There’s a…” His eyes narrowed and he frowned. “Why are you back?”

Matthew crossed his arms. “Oh you know, I left something important.” From beneath his poncho, he pulled a small device and tossed it to the rightly suspicious guard. “Here. Catch.”

The guard caught the device and immediately dropped to the ground as it delivered a debilitating electrical shock. Matthew was on him before he could twitch more than twice, gagging him and binding him.

“Next time you’re suspicious of someone, try not to be so trusting,” Matthew said as he finished tying the guard to the feet of his own desk. He relieved the struggling man of his weapon and comm and then unlocked the inner door to the barracks. He had been worried it would require a security code of some sort, but since this was just a frontier town, it wasn’t worth the investment.

He stepped into the long hall. And was met by several of the crew leads. Apparently, they’d been arguing about whether or not he was going to come back. He flicked the comm to a predetermined frequency and gave it, along with the gun, to one of the leads. “Don’t change the frequency. We’ll be jamming the others. Jorgelina? Are you ready?”

“I’m here she said.” She’d changed into a darker pair of clothes. Good. That would make it easier to slip around during the eclipse.

“Let’s go then. We’ve got fifteen more barracks to free. The rest of you stay put and wait on my call. When my ship comes in we’ll need to move quickly.”

The crew lead with the gun leaned against a doorframe and crossed her arms. “How is this not going to end in slaughter?”

“Oh, you thought I was done with distractions?” He smiled wryly. “We’re just getting started.”

Grace was finding out all sorts of things about her bracelets. For instance, try as she might, she couldn’t pull down one of the guard towers until Abigail had smashed it a couple of times with her shield to weaken the supports. After that, it was easy to get a grip on the platform and wrench it free. She couldn’t hold the whole weight, of course, but it was enough to bring the whole tower crashing down.

After wrecking the main gate and both of its guard towers, they made their way into the city. Abigail had said it would be best if they kept moving. The biggest danger was getting overwhelmed with too many targets, and she wasn’t quite willing to trust Grace’s bracelet to hold up under enemy fire indefinitely. The more enemies shooting at them, the less bullets she’d be able to soak with her shield. Grace was fine with that. Getting shot at less was definitely a good thing.

They began to move south towards the fields on the far side of town. A six-wheeled troop transport pulled in front of them from a side street. Grace hunched down into her harness and Abigail sprinted at the vehicle just as a dozen armed guards got out. Grace swatted two of them aside before Abigail thundered into them like a charging rhino, sending the rest scattering across the street. A few stray bullets went wide.

Abigail ran into the transport, gripping it with her armored hands and pushing it onto its side. Grace’s eyes went wide. That was the most impressive show of strength she’d seen from her so far. Abigail kicked the vehicle’s undercarriage viciously a few times and dark liquid spilled onto the street.

“Grace, grab one of those guns.”

She pulled a rifle up to her. It floated a few inches in front of her outstretched hand in an iron grip.

Abigail stepped back and gestured. “Light her up.”

Grace frowned for a moment, then used her bracelet to point the floating weapon at the pool. She reached across with her right hand and awkwardly pulled the trigger. The gun sprayed bullet’s wildly, expending the clip. The fuel lit with a whooshing sound and soon the transport was ablaze.

Abigail jogged down the street south and away from the vehicle. Grace watched over her shoulder in disappointment. She would have liked to have seen the fruits of her handiwork. Just before they turned a corner, there was a fireball and a resounding explosion that echoed through the dark streets.

“Much better,” she said with a smile.

Matthew quietly slipped between the barracks, neutralizing the guards in each. Most fell prey to the “catch” trick. It was so easy that Matthew began to feel it was cheating. Catching an object tossed to you was almost as instinctual as breathing. And if someone shouts catch, good luck disobeying.

The seventh set of barracks was the first of the men’s. Matthew and Jorgelina unlocked the heavy door into the slave quarters and were met at once by a mob. They’d heard the explosions outside and were ready for action. It took several minutes for Matthew and Jorgelina to convince them that there was a plan and it would work better if they waited. A handful of men suddenly recognized Matthew as their old Padre and things got a little awkward. After wasting far too much time in unnecessary explanations, they were ready to head out to the next barracks.

They were interrupted on their way out by a question from one of the crew leads. “What about our slave bracelets?” The man held up the iron collar around his wrist. Its red light shone ominously.

Matthew paused. “Well, I don’t imagine the alarm it sets off is going to matter that much when we spring the whole town.”

He shook his head. “Some of us have kill bracelets. For those that have been… problematic to our handlers. We leave the town or tamper with the bracelet and POW. Lethal injection.”

Matthew sucked in a quick breath of air and readjusted his campero. This was a new wrinkle. Ten years ago, this would have been unheard of. It seemed the cartels had a new tool for controlling their workers. “I’ll take care of it. Somehow. Anyone know where the control center for these things is?”

“If I had to guess,” Jorgelina said, “I’d say the tech headquarters.”

“Makes sense. Where is that?”

One of the original residents of Villa María, a man named Oscar, rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Tech headquarters is in your old church, Padre.”

Matthew felt his heart drop. That was the last place he had any interest in seeing. Knowing his luck, that had been a foolish dream. “I’ll take care of it.” He pointed at the comm he’d given one of the crew leads. “Wait on the signal.”

He pushed open the door and left the barracks, slipping back out into the night. Jorgelina fell into step behind him as they approached the next one. Thankfully the streets were deserted. As planned, cartel members from all over the town were being redirected to deal with Abigail and Grace. The barracks district was empty, save for the single guard inside the door at each building.

Having to disable the kill bracelets was going to be a problem, but it wasn’t like he had options here. Somehow or another, he’d have to find the time once the Sparrow landed. When he had the extra support on the ground, he’d be able to slip away to deal with this complication.

He turned to Jorgelina. “You okay?” he whispered.

She looked at him with sad eyes and nodded.

A tendril of guilt worked its way into his heart. “I’m sorry, he said. “For Enrique, for how long it took me to get back, for…”

She regarded him for a moment. “I know. But this isn’t the life I signed up for. Get us out of here, and all is forgiven.”

No, this wasn’t the life he’d signed up for either. None of it was. But then that’s how it was for everyone, wasn’t it?

Abigail worked her way steadily to the south side of town. More and more enemies were in the streets now and she and Grace had to stay on their toes to keep from being encircled. She’d lost count of the number of barricades, watchtowers, and vehicles they’d smashed, all with the goal of causing as much general mayhem as possible.

When they passed city hall, they climbed to the top of it and crushed the old thumper that Matthew had thought might still be guarding the skies. The meteor pod had come down fast and hard enough that they probably hadn’t had a chance to even figure out what was going on, let alone draw a bead on them. Abigail wasn’t about to let them point that thing at the Sparrow.

It was a smoking crater in the street below by the time they finished with it.

The only real scare came when a hand grenade landed beside them. Abigail’s heart sank in horror as she turned to face it, dropping to her knee and raising her shield to protect them both. It blew up, sending shrapnel and concrete chunks in all directions.

“Ungh!” Grace grunted.

Cold panic hit Abigail. “You okay back there? Talk to me.”

“I’m… fine. I think. It’s just a cut. Ricochet, I think.”

They had to get out of here. There were too many enemies and they were coordinating now. Time to spring the trap.

“Just hang on. We’ll get you patched up soon.”

Abigail sprinted down the street, plowing past a fresh group that was trying to hem them in. She leaped their barricade in a single flying bound. It was only a few more blocks to the south edge of the city. The sharp crack of gunfire rang out from behind them, and a few stray bullets broke around Grace’s protective field.

They were in the clear, past the last building, through the gate, and into the cultivated fields on the south side of town. Abigail kept going until she reached the tree line dividing the first and second fields. She stopped and faced the city.

The cartel had organized now. No longer were loose squads of guards standing in her way. Now they had a plan. Several dozen lined the top of the wall facing her and at least fifty came out of the gate. They spread out, unwilling to be bowled over in groups, and kept their rifles trained in her direction across the field. Their trigger discipline was also improving. They weren’t wasting ammo on bullet-proof targets. Which meant if they had any heavy weapons besides the now destroyed thumper, they were about to make an appearance.

No matter. Their enemy was about to change.

Abigail craned her neck to check on Grace. The girl had a gash that ran up her jawline to behind her ear. It was smeared with blood and dirt but didn’t look to be particularly dangerous. “Ready to bait the trap?” she asked. Grace nodded but looked a little dazed. What kind of world did they live in that a thirteen-year-old volunteered for this kind of fight?

Abigail stepped back into the field. Dozens of lights shone in her direction illuminating them from every side as the enemy fanned out to get a wider angle of fire.

“You want to do the honors?” she asked Grace.

“I am so ready for this,” the girl said, clearing her throat. “Bring the thunder, boys.”

With a piercing shriek, four rockets streaked past them, blasting the outer wall of Villa María to rubble and taking the men atop with them. From the cover of the fields, three squads of camouflaged Swiss Guard opened fire.

The Battle of Villa María had begun in earnest.

Yvonne and had spent the last few hours in the cockpit of the Sparrow, waiting desperately for news. Occasionally she chatted with Davey from his position in the turret, but he wasn’t in the mood for conversation, not with Grace on the surface beneath them. He was worried. They both were, but they dealt with it differently. Yvonne wanted someone to talk with to keep her mind sharp and occupied.

The Sparrow was a lonely place right now.

She’d listened as the signals came in, initiating each phase of the operation, with growing trepidation. How had she come to be in this situation? She was a doctor, not a combat pilot. And yet at any minute, she would deorbit and attempt an insane landing maneuver. Thousands of lives were depending on her, and she knew she needed more practice.

Her comm crackled to life and Matthew’s voice came over loud and clear. “Bring in the bird.”

“Sparrow is inbound. I’m expecting a friendly welcoming party.”

Matthew didn’t answer, as per the plan, to reduce the risk of intercepted communications. It wasn’t likely, but there was a chance that Hueso Rojo would stumble upon the unjammed frequencies the assault team was using.

Gently, she directed the Sparrow down toward Europa, out of the geosynchronous orbit they had been waiting in and fired up the engines. The Sparrow was sluggish with the weight of the enormous passenger barge attached to its belly. Not only was she dealing with reduced acceleration, but now her thrust was offset from the center of mass, requiring her to compensate by adjusting her heading.

“Davey, we’re heading down. You ready?”

“Sooner we’re down there the sooner this is over with.”

“My thoughts exactly. We’ll have Grace back on board as soon as we can.”

She watched as Europa gradually spread across her field of view. She took a deep breath and pushed all doubts from her mind. Like she and Tomas had done for so many years in their clinics, she was saving lives. He wouldn’t have had her live her life in any other fashion.

Commandant Jullian Ortega gave Grace Anderson a pat on the shoulder as he finished putting the layer of synthskin on the shrapnel cut beneath her ear. He’d been adamantly opposed to bringing her into a warzone. After several arguments with Cole, he’d let the matter drop once her miraculous bracelets had been demonstrated. But it still made him uneasy.

“You’re good to go now,” he said.

Sharon knelt by Anderson and she climbed back into her harness on the woman’s exo-suit. What Ortega wouldn’t give for his men to all be wearing powered armor right now. Earthtech was hard enough to come by, even when you knew the proper channels.

He wondered briefly how Cole had gotten that gauss rifle of his. He’d loaned Jullian’s best sharpshooter the weapon for their assault and they’d made excellent use of it silently cutting down patrols in the fields. Quiet, efficient, and deadly.

An explosion rocked the ground and he peered out from behind the tree they’d used as cover while he patched up Anderson. Another part of the wall had just come down and the Swiss Guard squads were advancing on the outmatched cartel. Soon, the enemies that had foolishly followed Sharon and Anderson outside the walls would be neutralized and they could begin moving through the city.

“Thanks, Captain,” Sharon said, getting back to her feet.

“Commandant,” he corrected as he shouldered his own pack.

“Close enough,” she said. “We’ll skirt the wall and move on to the landing zone.” She clomped off into the dark to the sound of servo motors whining.

Anderson waved in parting. “Thank you, Commandant!”

In spite of himself, Julian smiled. These people were crazy. He walked back over to the Horse, an earthtech robot designed to carry supplies and munitions. It also carried their jamming equipment and served as their mobile command station for this operation. He pulled up the main display and began to mark locations on the sat map for squads as they breached the walls. A personnel list winked on the side. They’d taken multiple injuries, some of which were nearby in the shelter of the trees getting treatment from their medic, but none were life-threatening so far. The cartel wasn’t so lucky. It would be hard to get an estimation of how many casualties they had taken, but considering how soon they were going to be moving into the walls, the numbers were going to be high.

Julian pulled out his comm. “Patrol Craft Alpha remain vigilant. With the Sparrow coming in, we’re more likely to draw outside attention. If you see movement let us know.”

“Yes, sir.”

There was another explosion. He looked out from his cover and saw the remaining Hueso Rojo forces retreat behind the wreckage of the wall to the cover of the buildings.

He flipped his comm channel to ground forces. “All squads prepare to move in. We’ve got a city to liberate.”

“I’m beginning my final descent now,”

Matthew breathed a sigh of relief. They’d finished prepping the barracks. Now it was time to meet the Sparrow. “Yvonne...” he said into his comm. “Be safe.”

“Easier said than done with what you’re asking me to do. Have you ever done this?”

“No, but that’s why I asked you. Just think of it like that appendectomy.”

“Matthew Cole, if you were…”

Abigail’s voice interrupted over the comm. “Grace and I are almost in position. We’ll be there to soften the landing.”

He stepped out from under the shadow of the tree that he and Jorgelina had been hiding under and looked up into the sky. There was the Sparrow just now entering the atmospheric shield. The engines were bright stars of light as it descended tail-first toward the surface of the moon.

“What’s that attached to the ship?” Jorgelina asked in a voice just above a whisper.

“Passenger barge. Only ride we could find big enough to fit everyone. It’s going to make landing a little tricky since it weighs more than the ship itself.” Stay here. He left the cover of the alley and ran down the street. Thankfully with the battle taking place on the other side of town, they hadn’t seen a soul in the barracks district in some time. He pulled a pair of signal flares out of his pocket and ignited them, walking to the outer wall at the street. Blinding red light lit the area, and a column of smoke rose from each flare. He planted them in the ground roughly thirty feet apart at the base of the wall and retreated back to where Jorgelina watched in confusion.

“What’s that for…?”

“You’ll see. Davey, do you have eyes on the target?”

“I see them,” the teen replied. “I can’t quite… Yvonne can you rotate us a few degrees?”

“Which way?”

“Umm. Clockwise. Little more. A little… Got it. Better stand back, Matthew.”

A thumper blast streaked down from the tail of the Sparrow and tore the wall apart, sending cement and masonry flying around the street. Matthew and Jorgelina retreated further away for safety. The thumper fired three more times.

“How’s it look?” Davey asked.

They peeked around the corner. Most of the section between the flares was filled with rubble and collapsed wall. “It’s a bit of a mess, but we’ll be able to get through.” Matthew switched his comm channel. “Citizens of Villa María, it’s time to get out of here. Once you leave your barracks, head to the east wall. Streets are quiet right now, but keep your eyes open. I imagine we’ll have company soon.

The squad of Swiss Guard paratroopers that had deployed from the barge as soon as it entered the environmental shield were landing just as the former slaves started to fill the streets. Matthew ran over to the corporal as he detached his parachute. “Glad to see some backup!” he shouted over the roar of the slowly descending Sparrow.

“What’s the situation, sir?”

Matthew frowned. He was hardly military so he decided to ignore the formality. “Everything is going according to plan. I imagine with our ship lighting up the sky we’ll have company soon from the west.”

“Understood. Moving into position to guard the civilians.” He made hand gestures to his squad and they ran west.

The street was filled with people now. Most looked rather shocked at the situation they found themselves in. Some were openly crying. Crew leads and the others who kept their senses about them were trying to get them moving toward the wall.

“Disabling grav plates at landing site,” Abigail said, activating the program Matthew had uploaded into the grav plate hub earlier.

“Thanks!” Yvonne grunted. “She’s feeling a bit heavy with the barge! Oh, wow that’s much better. Fifty meters to touch down.”

Matthew turned and watched through the hole in the wall as the Sparrow descended the final stretch. He couldn’t help but feel nervous. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Yvonne, it was more that, well, he really loved that ship and if it was going to be doing dangerous things, he’d prefer to be the one doing it, in spite of what he’d told Yvonne.

The enormous brick of the passenger barge set down on the ground with a bit of a bump. The Sparrow remained suspended in the air on its side. Backblast from the engines sent dust swirling and billowing in a cloud around them.

“I’m going to have to keep the engines burning to maintain balance,” Yvonne said. “Otherwise, we’ll tip.”

“You did great, Yvonne,” Matthew said. The barge’s door opened and the final squad of Swiss Guard filed out. Their task was to corral the citizens and get them loaded safely. Matthew looked around at the crowd surrounding him. This was going to take a while.

Which was good because he still had one more task.

“I’ve got to head back into town,” he said into the comm.

“What? Why?” Abigail asked. “Something wrong?”

“Turns out some of the slave bracelets are set to kill. I’ve got to head to the tech headquarters to disable them.

“I’m coming with you then.”

“No, you’re not. You’ll just draw attention. I can do this quietly. Guard the streets to the west.”

She growled in frustration. “Alright, but be safe, Matthew. You get into trouble and I’m going to come storming through town after you.”

He smiled. “I’d expect nothing less.”

The Swiss Guard had started to organize the civilians into messy lines to get them loaded. It was becoming less a mob as they came to their senses and started to follow orders.

Matthew turned to go but felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Jorgelina. “You know the worst thing about this is that I won’t even be able to slip away to visit his grave anymore.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I wish he was still here, even a decade later. I… I failed him.”

“We both did,” Matthew said simply.

Enrique was a testament of all his past failures. In spite of everything he did, Villa María had fallen. And in the case of Jorgelina’s son, it was because of his efforts.

The tombstone and the town would remain behind on the surface of Europa as monuments to the past.

“Go on,” she said. “You’ve got work to do.” She joined the crowd moving toward the Sparrow. Matthew watched her go and then turned and worked his way against the crowd. It wasn’t time to turn his back on the past just yet. The old church called to him.

He kept to the shadows as he slipped through the streets. The sound of battle in the south was dying out. Now, there were only sporadic bursts of gunfire as the Swiss Guard moved through town, neutralizing and subjugating the remaining cartel forces. They would also be herding any citizens that were neither slave nor cartel toward the Sparrow. Mostly skilled labor, every town had some folks paid off by the cartel to do their job and keep the gears turning. They were getting evacuated too.

If Matthew had anything to say, there wasn’t going to be a Villa María after today.

A few minutes later, he crept into the old park in front of the church. It was eerily quiet. Surely if the church was their tech headquarters, they wouldn’t have abandoned it. A pile of ash sat on the front steps and the front door stood half ajar. He peered around the corner into the church.

Soft light illuminated the nave. The pews had all been removed, replaced by computers, workstations, and the equipment needed to run the town. A few more piles of ash sat smoldering on the stone floor. The old pulpit still stood in its place on the left side of the church. And behind the pulpit?

Matthew drew his gun and walked down the aisle pointing it at the sole survivor of whatever had happened here.

Whitaker. The Unchained Man stood at the pulpit. A smile spread across his lips as if he were pleased with himself. He set his black cowboy hat on the podium. “I thought you’d be by eventually. It’s good to see you, Matthew.”