Faraway War

A Galactic Son Story

FARAWAY WAR

Scott Moon

A Galactic Son Story

ZERO MISSION

“We are no longer human, are we?” Vilantis asked.

Cobri watched the strongest man she’d ever known stare into the sunset. There was a lush forest thirty kilometers away in the opposite direction from their destination. Birds lifted into the air as golden light tipped their wings.

Vilantis was no longer a man, and she was no longer a girl from Mars Far. “The Lagomere Edictum sent us here to do a job. It will involve explosions.” She grimaced and shrugged. “Energy weapons too dangerous for Fleshers to wield. Also some killing.”

“Always that,” Vilantis said, turning from his contemplation of the wilderness. “Give the dirty jobs to the cyborgs.” He paused, then looked down at her with the carbon-fiber smile she loved. “And we’re the most cyborg, aren’t we?”

“Skulls into the breach,” she said.

He stalked toward the troop roller where six men and two women leaned on weapons they had disassembled, cleaned, reassembled, and loaded. Vilantis tossed up one hand, and they attached the deadly gear to their metal, ceramic, and carbon-fiber bodies. If they’d locked and loaded prematurely, he would have insisted on an inspection. No one wanted to start over. To the void with that. Skull Squad didn’t waste time. Fast, vicious, and always first—that was who they were.

Hevlan, Jags, Britbit, Fulcom, Morilan, and Thump formed a half-circle facing Cobri and Vilantis as they returned from the ridge. She wondered why the men stood like that—shoulders hunched, snarls on their carbon fiber or wire-mesh faces, and eyes dimmed until it was hard to know if they were powered up.

Be proud, she thought. Stand tall.

The other women in Skull Squad leaned against the troop roller. Masella was smoking for all the good it did her. She was nearly as augmented as Vilantis. Maybe she had lungs and a cardiovascular system that supported more than her brain, but Cobri doubted it.

Shells had her hands down the front of her pants, which made Hevlan and Jags watch her for all the good it did anyone. Sex was in the mind, or in the digital download. Every three-quarter cyborg pretended it was possible away from docking stations, but it wasn’t. More’s the pity. Out here, clothing was just a harness for tools, rank insignia, and, in the case of Shells, a way to tease anyone who might stare, even for a second. She liked attention, and the boys liked to give it to her. Vilantis was the only man in Skull Squad or the Ghost Cohort who had a real chance with the woman.

Not that Cobri cared. She was a professional, just like Vilantis.

“Listen to me, Skulls,” Vilantis said. “Some of us are done in ten missions. That means synthetic bodies that can pass for human, and jobs in the civilian sector if we want them. First, we’re going into Mag Town to retrieve an Ordinate child and the Brutarch who was supposed to protect her.”

“Do they want us to execute the Brutarch?” Hevlan asked, standing to his full height for the first time. He was nearly as tall as a Lagomere enforcer.

“He failed, and they’ll kill him for that,” Vilantis said.

Hevlan was impossible to read. “But those aren’t our orders.”

“No. Recover the Ordinate child. Recover the Brutarch bodyguard, no matter how big he is. Kill anyone who stands in our way,” Vilantis said, then looked at Cobri. “No killing until it is time, and make sure it is never time. Snatch and grab.”

“Skulls into the breach,” Cobri said.

“Morilan and Thump, rear guard. Keep your eyes open. This city isn’t as empty as it looks. Do not engage noncombatants,” Vilantis said. “Britbit, Fulcom, and Shells, you’re with me in the center formation. Be ready to move in any direction in case of an ambush, which you should expect even though we’re trying to avoid it.”

“Especially because of that,” Cobri said.

Vilantis gave her a sharp look, which hurt because her timing had been perfect. Maybe he saw her frustration with the order of march.

“Take Jags on point. Show him the ropes. Don’t talk too much. I know he has questions,” Vilantis said. His throat must be made of barbed wire and bad memories today.

Cobri started into the city, grabbing Jags by the shoulder and yanking him into motion as she passed. “We’re the smallest targets. Do what I say, and neither of us will get killed.”

“Sure, Cobri. Sorry.”

She hissed. Britbit, Fulcom, and Morilan laughed and called him Spooky Jags, which Cobri thought was a half-assed nickname. The new guy was easily spooked. That didn’t make him spooky.

Idiots.

“Masella,” Vilantis said in his grittiest, grimmest voice. “Float. Do what you do.”

Cobri checked her heads-up display and saw that the sniper was already lost in the shadows, invisible without the digital marker.

Jags looked back three times more often than he should, but at least he was maintaining contact with the squad by HUD and line-of-sight visual. That was an important part of being on point, and the world was analog.

“I’m the only guy in the Skulls who hasn’t seen an Ordinate or a Brutarch,” he said ten minutes and two city blocks later. Cobri was impressed he’d made it that long.

“You’ll know them when you see them, and if you do your job, you’ll see them before they see us.”

“Right, right,” Jags said. “Hevlan said this was a zero mission. Fulcom said it was more likely to be a meat run.”

“We’re not Fleshers. Can’t be a meat run.” Cobri pulled him down behind a damaged vehicle missing three of its four wheels.

“That’s what I told Fulcom, but he said the other side would provide the meat for our beam lasers,” Jags said too loudly.

Cobri tensed, but decided not to chastise him this time. The empty buildings ate the sound. It was okay. No one was about to kill them. Not yet.

Fulcom or Hevlan would have already smacked him upside his metal head. “Let’s hope we don’t have to use the beam lasers.”

Each time they did that, the less chance there was for synthetic bodies after escaping conscription. Radiation had to go somewhere. Shielding wasn’t perfect. She’d been cute before getting run over by a troop roller. Everyone said so.

“Right. Stick to blasters. Activate the railguns and send the tungsten,” Jags said like he was still in boot camp.

“We’ll use fists, blades, and boots,” Cobri said. “Nothing else.”

Jag’s eyes looked worried. Both were organic. Maybe that’s why the rest of Skull Squad thought he was a naïve kid.

“Hey, do me a favor next time you speak,” she said a moment later, fearing the consequences of her words. The last point man she’d trained had been responding to that warning when an Avian sniper plugged him between the eyes. If it happened again, that would prove Corbi’s luck had changed from legendary to cursed.

“Anything for you, Cobri.”

She ground her teeth. Freaking new guy. Helpless, co-dependent ass-kisser. “Stop talking, and if you’ve got to run your suck, keep the volume down.”

He nodded.

Good boy, Jags the Spooked.

“Masella for Cobri,” came a voice on internal comms. “How copy?”

“Good copy. What’s dying?”

“Nothing yet. My finger isn’t even on the trigger. But I have eyes on the principal and her bodyguard.”

“Problem?” Cobri asked, knowing she wouldn’t have contacted her directly for any other reason.

“I see humans, armed humans.”

“How can there be other humans this far out?” Cobri asked without thinking. At least they were on internal comms. Right then, she realized Masella hadn’t included Jags. He looked more worried than usual.

Spend more time watching your zone and less time watching me. Stop being a new guy. Stop being the most likely reason we get killed in five minutes or less.

She held up one hand, bidding him to wait for an update, then pointed toward the city ahead of them. He directed his attention forward. That was a start, though his body was so tense she worried someone would hear gears grinding or carbon fiber creaking.

“I’m guessing they’re here for the same reason we are,” Masella said.

Cobri shook her head despite the uselessness of the gesture. She was really off her stride today. “We’re here to capture Calynor Vethis, the daughter of a wealthy Ordinate industrialist, and her bodyguard, Krallith, a Brutarch so notoriously murderous that he only needs one name. The humans were contracted by the kid, or maybe the bodyguard, to meet them here.”

“You can’t know that,” Masella said.

“It’s an amazing guess.”

Neither woman spoke. Once they had been friends. Now they were something else because Cobri would make it to discharge. When Vilantis said some of Skull Squad was within ten missions of earning their freedom, he never mentioned that this was her last.

Assuming she survived.

“You’re right,” Cobri admitted nearly a minute later. “I don’t know Brutarch piss from Shorn shit. What do we do about the humans?”

“Too many for me to remove from the board by myself, and there are children.”

“Why would Calynor Vethis or her bodyguard be looking for human kids?” She brought Jags into the conversation, which was probably confusing because neither she nor Masella talked after that.

Time passed. She signaled Vilantis to hold. The purple glow of dusk grew darker. Only the faint silhouettes of tall buildings remained visible. She adjusted her optics and spotted the problem.

“They are looking for you, Masella,” Cobri said via comms. Her digital voice mimicked her own. Vilantis ordered voice consistency. In other squads, cyborgs modified the transmissions until they were powerfully cinematic, because they were morons.

“They will be disappointed.” Masella’s icon moved from one building to another. She must have leaped the gap.

“They are nearly at the top floor,” Cobri said. A minute passed. “Now I see them looking over the edge. Definitely non-cybernetic humans. Bringing Vilantis into the conversation now.”

“Why was I excluded in the first place?” Vilantis asked after he’d been briefed.

“The principal is on the move,” Jags announced on the main channel.

“Confirmed,” Masella and Cobri said in unison.

“Answer my questions,” Vilantis said.

“Because you’ll pull Cobri now that the mission has become complicated, and we need her,” Masella said.

“Wrong. I’m sending her and Jags to negotiate,” Vilantis said. “Skull Squad, set up a perimeter and hold it. No killing until I give the word. It’s time to see if Cobri really can talk the devil out of his gold.”

… Faraway War will continue in episode II.

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