Scarlet Steel

Exa and I stay out for almost our entire allotted time, only heading back to the ship twenty hours later when I can barely remain on my feet. Exa even has to catch me as I step off the conveyor belts.

The dropship is full of boxes of my parts, liquids, printer, food, and other supplies for the ship. A few large boxes made of Mnemosyne chitin are stacked up beside them.

Juno, Janus, Elara, and the AI have barely moved. Juno hasn’t even changed out of her survival suit, although she did take off her helmet at some point. The holographic display, on the other hand, is so dense with files that it's unreadable. Juno occasionally reaches into the opaque mess and pulls out the exact file she’s looking for. None of them even glance in our direction when we enter. At least the smell has mostly aired out.

I collapse into the pilot's seat, finally able to rest. I can’t believe how sore my body is.

“Are we flying back? Or am I napping here until they’re done?” I ask quietly.

“Just rest.” Exa grabs a blanket from the medical kit and drapes it over me. “Graff and Xenia will be back in a few hours. We’ll leave then.”

“Sounds good.” I clutch the blanket close to me, let my eyes drift shut, and I’m out like a light.

A moment later I feel myself moving. My eyes crack open and I find myself in Exa’s arms, heading into the main ship proper.

“Like I’ve never carried you home before.” Elara whispers.

“At least I have a good reason.” Graff whispers back.

Ugh, they think I can’t handle myself. That I’m just some kid. I need to fix that.

“Juno said to use my shore leave.” I mumble. “So I used all of it.”

That pulls a laugh out of Graff.

“I can respect that.” He says.  “Next time come out with me, I’ll show you how to really enjoy your time.”

“Sure.” I relax into Exa’s arms and let her carry me upstairs. I end up in my bed, only to be awoken what feels like a few minutes later.

“This is your wakeup notification.” Andromeda announces.

“Ugh, crap.” I squint against the light and glance at the clock. I can get more sleep. I pull the covers over my head and relax.

“Your sleep schedule is going to be off if you sleep further.” Ugh, she sounds so earnest. And as much as it sucks, she’s right.

“Yeah. Thank you.” I throw off my covers and force my eyes open.

I manage to stay awake, but it takes me an hour to finally climb out of bed. I’m doing nothing today. I’m allowed to do that every once in a while, right? I throw on some clothes and head downstairs.

Juno is at the holographic table, still in her survival suit. An empty pot of coffee sits next to her. Janus has changed, but he’s standing next to her. He must have had a nap at some point.

“Did you sleep at all?” I ask as I pass her.

“Nope.”

“Plan’s almost done though.” Elara manifests next to me as I head for the kitchen. “We’re just checking for any flaws. Can you lie well?”

“Yeah, of course I can!” I insist.

“The key to lying is convincing yourself. If you can’t do that, how do you ever expect to convince anyone?” She glances at me, seeing straight through me. “It’s fine, you don’t need an in-depth cover. We’re keeping as much of our history as possible unchanged, and we’ll rehearse what is.”

“I’m not that bad.” I insist far quieter than the first time. “I guess I don’t have a lot of practice though. Mom never called me out when I snuck out the window.”

“I remember her stories.”

“I really thought I was being sneaky, but Exa ruined that dream.” I grab one of the new fruit bars for breakfast. Ugh, they’re way worse than the ones from the last station. They don’t even taste like fruit! Whatever. I’ll just buy extra the next time we’re at a station with that brand. I hop up onto the edge of the counter and watch Juno work.

“I think…” Juno slowly says. “This will work.” The second half of her sentence is much more certain. “Everyone! Get over here.”

I hop down and follow her order. All of us move over to the holographic table. With one swipe of Juno’s hand, everything she had displayed disappears.

“Here’s the plan.” A picture of a gruff man fills the space in front of us. “Most of you know Brickhouse. Scarlet, we’ve worked with him and his mercenary group in the past. He’s dead, killed being a dumbass in Mnemosyne space. The whole ship went down, no survivors. They got an SOS out onto private channels but it was never distributed to the wider network. We have no reason to have known they were dead without seeing it in person.”

“That’s a shame.” Elara says. “He was a good man.”

“We’ve had public relations with him in the past.” Juno explains to me. “Worked with each other in the public eye a fair few times. Always been good to each other. He’s our cover. He was working with New Horizons, the group that runs the planet the Mnemosyne is stuck on. He was tasked with recovering relics, technology, anything he could get his hands on. Scarlet, the Mnemosyne killed your dad.”

“What? Really?” I guess I never asked, but I never would have thought they were this far out. I feel like I should be angry, but I mean, it’s no different than if a human killed him. The people we’re working with didn’t do it.

“No, of course not.” Juno says only after a few seconds. “I was hoping you’d get angry. Every good cover needs a foundation. Make that yours. The Mnemosyne killed your dad. Make that true and get pissed about it.”

“I just kind of feel numb, but I’ll try.” I slowly nod. Not right now though.

“Good. When Scarlet joined up, she and Exa wanted revenge, which is why we’re here. We did a few ops on the way, same ones we did in reality. When we got to the edge of Mnemosyne space we tooled around for a few months to get Scarlet up to speed. Only thing we’re changing is our last op, we never rescued that research station. Once Scarlet was comfortable we entered Mnemosyne space proper and accidentally stumbled across Brickhouse. He had a cargo full of relics and was being chased by the Mnemosyne. We fought beside him, desperately trying to help him evac. Our ship is faster than his, so we took the relics and got out. He didn’t. He asked us to finish his job, and that’s what we’re doing. His disappearance is going to create a vacuum within the mercenaries working with New Horizons, one that we’re going to fill. Building trust takes a long time, and we’re commandeering his. Details of the fake op are in your briefings.”

“What about the mine?” Graff asks. “Elara blasted the fact that we found Mnemosyne relics across the quantum network. If every bandit and mercenary group in the area knew we found something big, then everyone across the Spur does. And they’ll know we sold it to Earth.”

“Earth was the highest bidder, simple as that. Walked away with a shipload of arcs. The fact we helped Earth, and by extension the Mnemosyne, was a happy coincidence. It bought us goodwill which we were planning on cashing in when we got in too much trouble. We never needed that leverage and still have it.”

“And we’re going to offer them use of said leverage.” Janus takes over. “A simple delivery isn’t going to be enough for them to trust us. Four months ago one of their spies were apprehended by the Mnemosyne. Negotiations, predictably, broke down. The Mnemosyne still have him alive, and he’s being transported to the station he was apprehended at originally as we speak. He will be arriving soon.”

“Selling the relics gives us a foot in the door. Recovering their man gets us in. But we need a reason to land and stay there.” Juno continues. “During the recovery we’re going to work with the Mnemosyne to fabricate a problem. We’ll likely end up ‘fighting’ our way out. Shoot a few memoryless, essentially brainless, Mnemosyne on the way out to make it look real. At that point we’ll need a place to lay low. Brickhouse vouches for us post-mortem. Their spy vouches for us. That’ll get us on the planet, and from there I’ve got dossiers on important people in their military bases and we play it by ear. Make some friends and get access to a less-secured server with a connection to their defense network. Scarlet, I’m giving you photos of people we’re targeting, but no details.”

“What? Why?” I ask.

“Because I can’t have you slipping and blowing our cover. Any suspicions and we’re fucked. Only way we’re getting off the planet at that point is avoiding their entire military until we can figure out some way to disable the planetary defense system and fly a ship out of there. The planet’s mostly mountainous terrain and dense jungle, they’d have a tough time finding us, but that’s not a situation I’m letting happen. You’re making friends with some mechies. Janus, you’re with techies. Graff, kiss the boots of higher ups. I’ll take the generals. Rest of you follow Elara’s lead in the Digital. Any of them would theoretically be able to get us enough access to compromise their system temporarily and let the Mnemosyne do their work. We only need one entrance.”

“What about me?” Luna asks.

“Same as always. Keep Andromeda company and keep the ship secure. All details about our plans are going to be airgapped in case the two of you get compromised, but I still want you on security. There’s no reason for you to come down with us.”

“Fine with me.”

“Any questions?” Juno glances at all of us.

“Does the timeline line up?” I ask. “We’re barely at the edge of Mnemosyne space, right? I know we’ve been here for a few months, but how deep was Brickhouse when he died?”

“Good question. Two weeks from here. We’re lucky our last op was off the cuff. There’s no public mission offer connected to us. Not a soul who matters knows we were on that planet. The Mnemosyne and their quantum friends wiped our existence from the last station we were on, up to and including disguising your monetary transactions. If we went from our second to last op straight into Mnemosyne space, we’d run right into the system he died in. We’d be reaching the planet we’re attacking in six days, and our ETA is seven. I’m running the engine hard to bring that down to the expected six.”

“It’ll all be in your briefing.” Elara adds. 

“And I expect you to memorize every last word.” Juno emphasizes. “If that’s all, Scarlet, get to work on the mechs. I want every mech in storage optimized for Earth-like conditions at 1.3 g. Temp extremes are -10 and 45 c.”

“All of them?” I glance at the warehouse. Ten mechs in the bays plus the two Aphids in six days. If I want to sleep I need to finish each mech in under eight hours. I can do Hoppy in two, I’m familiar enough with the Rhino to do it in under four. The rest of them are going to take closer to eight. “I decide I’m allowed to take one lazy day…” I mumble to myself. “Wait, we won’t need the mechs until the assault, right? If we need to pick up a spy, that’s weeks from now.”

“There’s a miniscule chance they’ll let us down with just the relics. I won’t be caught unprepared if the assault happens on our first arrival.”

“Guess I better get to work then. Andromeda-”

“I’ve already scheduled lunch and dinner deliveries.” She answers.

“Thank you.”

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