Scarlet Steel

A growing concern amongst civilians is the increasing prevalence of non-standard mechs in use by bandits. Our investigation reveals as much as five percent of cargo and construction mechs sold may end up in the hands of these criminals. Few governments are doing anything to curtail this growing crisis, and our coverage will continue after these messages. - Spur News Network.

“Report status.” Juno orders.

“Apollo-2, green.” Janus confirms. “Apollo-2 cybersecurity suite, green”

“Apollo-3, green.” Graff reports.

“Apollo-3 cybersecurity suite, green.” Xenia adds.

“Apollo-4, green?” I report, although my uncertainty brings a laugh out of Graff, who’s mic gets cut off only a moment later.

“Scarlet, you should know damn well if your mech is working.” Juno says. “Is your mech combat ready or not?”

“As far as I can tell, yes, but we never got around to testing anything.”

“Are you prepared to make field repairs?” She asks.

“Yes.”

“Then?”

“Apollo-4, green.” I report.

“Apollo-4 cybersecurity suite, green.” Exa adds.

“Confirmed. Apollo-1, green. Janus, take us planetside.”

“Copy, taking us down. Expect touchdown in 30 minutes.”

“Comms free.” Juno finishes.

Juno barely finishes her message before Xenia comes over the radio.

“Don't mind Graff, we've all had the first mission nerves. Plus you looked exhausted. We have some coffee in the front if you need some.”

“No, coffee just makes me tired for some reason.” I respond.

“That explains a lot.” Janus interrupts. “Also, please be sure to switch from global to private chat before talking.”

“Shit!” I reach for the console and switch it off completely before yet more laughter can come though. “Exa you could have warned me!”

“You're in the wrong business if you want to be babied.” She says simply. “Take it as the lesson it is.”

“I need to be perfect or Juno will send me home!”

“She's not going to kick you out because you worked too hard on Hoppy and didn't learn the lingo.”

“Ughhhh.” I can't even come up with an argument, I just need to complain.

Movement on the screens catches my eye. The external cameras show Graff, Xenia, and Juno climbing out of their mechs, and I'm left with an impossible decision. I want to work, to bury my embarrassment under oil and sweat. But they’re out there.

Fuck it, I can’t hide from them forever.

“I’m going to check my work.” I open a panel in the floor, pull out my toolbox, and begin to unhook myself from the harness. Shimmying out of the cockpit is tough with a toolbox in hand, but I drop to the floor eventually.

When a part moves for the first time, any number of bolts could shift and loosen themselves. I set down my toolbox, pull out a wrench, and begin to check every last part.

I keep my back to the three of them, although their soft conversation still reaches me. It's about nothing important, and not about me.

Working in this suit is a little annoying, but not nearly as bad as I would have expected. As long as I'm not doing any delicate wiring, the gloves are such a good fit that they barely get in the way. Not only that, but I can still feel texture through them? No idea how that works, but I'm grateful for it. It makes everything easier.

I find a few bolts that loosened a little, but nothing that would have impacted her ability to run. At worst, it would have reduced the number of bolts that could shear before she failed completely.

I check parts again and again, even inspecting connections that are already reporting no problems, just to have something to do. It’s not until a speaker in my suit comes to life that I realize just how long I’ve been here.

“We’re landing in ten minutes.” Exa warns me. “Finish up what you're working on.”

“I'm not really working on anything.” I say back and toss my tools back into the toolbox.

It takes only a minute before I climb back into Hoppy, close the door behind me, and ensure a complete seal from the outside. I even go so far as to pull on my helmet, I might as well.

“If the seal fails, are you going to be alright?” I ask Exa.

“Yeah, I made damn sure the separate environment regulator around my holo is safe. If anything goes wrong, I'll eject the entire canister. Just carry that back to the ship.”

“Got it.” I do one final check of the entire mech, making sure I didn't break anything. That's quickly followed by a few more full checks.

“You're going to be fine.” Exa reassures me. “We're not even going to be an active combatant. If someone does attack, we're running.”

“I know, I'm not anxious.” I immediately start on my fifth full systems check.

“Uh-huh.”

It's just a few minutes before Janus comes over the comms once again.

“Prepare for touchdown in sixty. Forty-five. Thirty. Fifteen. Ten. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Touchdown.”

The ship jolts a microscopic amount as his countdown finishes. Whatever reduced gravity we were experiencing disappears at the same time. I sink into my harness as a full 2 g pulls down on me. 

The arms clamping down on all of our mechs unlock at the same time, and the doors open. 

“Remember Kid, stay on my ass.” Juno orders before heading out of the bay doors.

Moving my arms in this increased gravity is difficult, but at least I can just rest my hand on the accelerator. Hoppy takes a little longer than normal to stand up, but she manages perfectly fine. I follow close behind Juno, trying to stay just a few feet away, just far enough to stop if something goes wrong.

The planet is only barren rocks bathed in twilight. Above us, clouds fly past, and lightning dances through them, intermittently lighting up the surface. Here on the surface, however? The place is quiet, not even a breeze disturbing the dust coating the ground.

“I’ll do a check-in and we’ll begin our station.” Juno says.

In the distance is a massive hill. Half of it is missing, a hidden door that's been pulled down. The opening is plenty big enough to fit our mechs in, with room to spare.

From the little I can see of the inside, it slants gently downwards into the earth, with flat platforms running up and down the slope on rails. People are hard at work unloading those platforms and moving them onto the planet's surface. They're wearing bulky space suits, not the sleek and slender ones we have on. I can't imagine how hard it must be to work in those bulky gloves, and especially in such high gravity.

Miraculously, none of them panic as we approach.

“Elara and I are going to head in and talk with the big guy running this place.” Juno’s voice comes over the radio. “All of you stay out here and watch my mech.”

“Chances you need rescue?” Graff asks.

“Two percent?” Elara guesses. “Although I don’t have many flashes to go off of. And I give it a fifteen percent chance he tries something, with an eighty percent chance he’s planning something.”

“Let’s hope then.”

“Sure.” Juno mumbles. “Janus is in command while I'm gone.”

“Confirmed.”

When we reach the mine, a compartment in the back of Juno’s mech opens up. Her seat swings out into open air, and she climbs down a small ladder built into the mech's back and legs. Without even a glance backwards, she enters the hill and disappears into a door built into the wall.

It’s not long before my radio comes to life once again, and Janus’s voice fills the cockpit.

“While we have time, Exa and I have disabled your console’s connection to your mech, and I’ve tied it to my simulation.”

“Alright.” At least it’ll keep me awake. “Just the standard course?”

“No, weapons testing.” My screens shift from the endless planet to a familiar, endless sandbox. “I know Juno said you’re not going to fight, and I agree with that, but you need to be capable of doing so if needed.”

“Oh! Alright, sure!”

“Do you know how to aim?” Janus asks.

“Theoretically. The guns have a firing angle of 30 degrees. Hoppy’s limited speed while strafing means I should hit and run, right?”

“Correct. When a scout stops moving, or even slows down, is normally the moment it dies.” Janus summons a familiar, simple obstacle course. It’s one I’ve run dozens of times. The only difference is that a few targets have been added to the route. 

I push the accelerator forward and see the screens move, although my body doesn’t react. I reach the first turn, and immediately the simulated mech hits the ground hard.

“I was fine, that shouldn’t have fallen.” I initiate the recovery sequence, and it quickly stands up. “What did you change?”

“Nothing.” Janus replies. “The simulation is just as it was before.”

“Really?” It’s not that I don’t trust him, but I shouldn’t have fallen. I know my mech, I know how much she can take, and the forces there were nothing! “Ah, shit, I’m not feeling the effects of gravity.”

“Correct. You will need to learn to pilot by wire, not by feel. Now is an excellent time to learn.”

“Great.” Attempting to run the course and fire the guns at the same time only results in me hitting the ground again and again. Eventually I give up on the guns, just trying to find the limits of this mech by watching just the screens. It’s so much harder. I’m forced to play everything safer than I would otherwise.

Just as I’m finally comfortable enough to add firing into the mix, one of my screens flicks to an outside image, showing Juno walking out of the mine.

“Oh boy, she’s pissed.” Xenia announced.

“I’ve got ten that they just fired us.” Graff says.

“No way.” Exa says. “The cost to get out of their contract is more than keeping us around. Better chance they’re in breach and we’re bailing.”

“Janus? What’s your bet?” Graff asks.

“I cannot participate, I’m responsible for her current mood.”

“You? Shit.”

Despite the fact that I know Juno has a radio in her suit, she waits until she climbs back into her mech before saying anything. She moves slowly, in no rush. The cockpit seat swings out from the back of the mech, and she steps from the ladder into it. Even her seat retracting into the mech is slow.

“We have a decision to make.” She says. “Janus, if you would.”

“I was poking around their network while we waited. A lot of AI do. What I found is that we’re standing above an ancient Mnemosyne outpost a few miles beneath the surface, dated almost six million years ago.”

“This close to Earth?” Exa asks. “That has some worrying implications.”

“Sorry, why?” I ask.

“Mnemosyne space isn’t nearly this close to earth, not by a thousand light years. Their memories, their history, don’t extend back that far. Humans diverged from our common ancestor with primates around then. Take your pick.”

“All that wouldn’t be a problem,” Janus continues, “if not for the fact that I discovered it relatively easily. I have no illusions that I am special, any number of AI or humans could have done the same. Word will get out, and would have already if the system wasn’t in lockdown while the quantum planet was awake. It’ll take dozens of trips to sell off the relics to a private collector, in addition to the regular pickups for ore. It’s plausible that numerous people will discover the secret of this mine.”

“And?” Graff asks. “There’s good money in defending. Hell, the contract has a bodycount bonus, let's leak it ourselves.”

“If it was just humans? Maybe.” Juno says. “But every Mnemosyne in a hundred light years is going to be here the instant word gets out. We’re not making an enemy of an entire race. There might not be that many in human space, but they don’t forget.”

“Not to mention the political ramifications.” Elara adds. “I don’t need to see the future to tell you how that’ll end up.”

“Why did they hire us?” Xenia asks. “They need an army, not four mechs.”

“Because the dumbass doesn’t know what they have.” Janus answers. “This is a pit boss seeing old buildings, seeing arcs, and getting fleeced for the true value. This is a mining group, not the criminal syndicate they would need to be to pull this off.”

“Right, the way I see it is that we’ve got a couple options.” Juno says. “This is big enough that we can break contract. First option is that we keep our heads down, get paid, and abandon this place when things get hairy. That or we sneak down there, see if we can find a memory cache, and bring it to the Mnemosyne ourselves. Both Aphids, the Hopper, and the Dagger would have no problem getting down there. The Mnemosyne would pay, but we’ll be stuck in the ship for a two year round trip at minimum, and I’m certain bounty hunters would track us down.”

“Or I have a third solution.” Elara says. “I could send word up the quantum network, inform my predecessor, and trust they’ll inform theirs. Word will spread throughout the universe, but also to Earth. I’m thirteen degrees from the original quantum, and I have to imagine a few generations call Earth home. I have no doubt when Earth hears, they will come here.”

“It’ll take a week for them to get here.” Janus notes. “And in that time, opportunistic scavengers would undoubtedly arrive.”

“So it’s my plan again.” Graff says. “Let’s leak it and get our bodycount bonus.”

“I vote we do both.” Xenia says. “Take control and wait for Earth. It’s the safest way to ensure any discoveries remain out of private hands.”

“It’s not our business.” Exa votes. “This whole thing is going to blow up and take anyone nearby with it. We should wipe our hands of the whole thing and find a new job somewhere else.”

The radio goes silent for a few seconds before Juno speaks up once again.

“Scarlet? Your input?”

“Right.” How the hell should I know? “What would dad do?”

“Did I ask him? Or you? Whatever Miller would have done means nothing. I want to hear your opinions, nobody else's."

“I- right.” Juno said she expects me to be the human Earth expects, and if getting this information to Earth will help preserve it, then there’s only one option. “We should tell Earth and protect this discovery.”

“Are you willing to fight for that? Die for that?”

“Yeah.”

“Scarlet, you don't know what that means.” Exa says. “Send us back to the ship, I’ll get her in the simulator for the next week.”

“What? No! No, I’m part of this group, I’m ok with staying.”

“Scarlet, if you freeze and I’m too busy fighting another AI to take over? You’re dead. That’s it. A moment’s hesitation, and I get stuck going home and telling Lyra I got a second family member killed!” She goes silent for a few long seconds. “Don’t fight before you reach your limits in the simulator.”

“Fine. Janus, start up the simulator.” I demand. “I have time before someone arrives, right?”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself.” Juno says. “Your insight is not my decision. That said, I do think it’s our best course. We’ll spread the word, and defend for as long as we can. Too big a force, and we leave Earth to deal with it. Anything that gets sold, we note it and let it go. Elara, spread the word.”

“Done. I haven’t seen Conation that interested in news in a long time. Word is already making its way up the ladder, and he shared the news with a few more branches just in case it reaches a dead end.”

“Good. Everyone, you’re on yellow alert until Earth gets here. I want you never more than five minutes away from combat ready. Apollo-4, I want the two of you stress testing your work. Janus, keep a close eye on incoming ships. We’re operating out of the dropship, I want all of you staying out of the mine. Am I clear?”

“Yes Ma-am.” Everyone reports in unison, and I add a half second later.

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