Scarlet Steel

“You going to fly us down?”

I jerk out of my sleep and scramble to look around. Juno is standing behind me, her arms crossed across her chest.

“Uh. I guess I can?” I glance at the controls. I flew across the surface of a planet, how hard can entering an atmosphere actually be? I reach out to start up the engine but pause after only flipping a few switches. “Wait, I thought we were just dropping off relics? Did our plans change?”

“She’s messing with you.” Elara whispers. “We’re approaching their planet now, and they’ll be docking with us for the meeting.”

“Right, thanks.” I cancel the engine startup and stretch in the chair. “Mechs are done, by the way.”

“Exa informed me, thank you. I want you in your nice suit for the meeting, they’ll be docking soon.”

“Alright.” I force myself out of the chair. “Wait, the biomass! We need to keep that, right?”

“It’s already hidden.” She reassures me. “We’ve got a contraband room preventing scans from picking it up.”

“Ok, good.” Time to get dressed. Just outside the cockpit door is a table that Andromeda has set up. Breakfast is already waiting for me. I start to eat and walk through the warehouse alongside Juno and Elara. “I can’t wait to sleep in my own bed.”

“It only takes a few minutes to walk to your room.” Juno notes.

“It’s too comfy. I won't get up when I have to.”

“Right.” 

The Mnemosyne relics have been moved into the center of the warehouse. I hurry past everything, rush upstairs, and throw on my nice clothes. Andromeda’s already made sure my suit is pressed and wrinkle-free. Despite that, I still spend just a minute ensuring everything is perfect. 

I slip my pistol into my left interior pocket, and a few magazines into my right. I don’t know how I feel about the fact that being armed makes me feel more comfortable. I guess it’s no different than when I’m piloting. I’d never be caught unarmed in Hoppy, and I’d never be caught unarmed outside of her either.

“Andromeda, can I armor my vest?”

“Certainly, although not without it being detectable. It's bad manners to wear armor to a meeting.” She answers. 

“Bringing a gun is fine, but armour is not?” I ask. “How the heck does that make sense?”

“Bringing a weapon puts every meeting on even ground. You know both parties are armed. Being unarmored despite that is a sign of respect and trust. Knowing the other party is armed and coming in trusting them not to use it is a sign that you wish to avoid conflict. Wearing armor signals that you are expecting the meeting to come to blows.”

“That's dumb.” I clip my tie on and tuck it into my vest. Do I need to do anything with my hair? It's messy and has splotches of oil and lubricants in it, but I kind of like it that way. I'm a mechie. Sure people can already tell that from all the crap stuck in the crevices of my hands, but I want people to know without looking closely.

“Exa and Xenia are both armored, and I will have bodies nearby. If this meeting comes to blows, I will protect my crew.” Andromeda reassures me.

“Appreciate it.” I know it won’t, but still, it doesn’t stop me from being worried. If we fight these people, we can’t help the Mnemosyne. Or fight them now at least.

I return to the living room, and I’m actually early for once! Everyone else soon joins me, all of them in their nice clothes. I guess everyone else also only has one nice outfit, or at least only one they like to wear. Every single one of us are in the same outfits as when we stopped at the Old Earth Designs station. Juno and Elara are both in their nice red dresses, Janus has layers of intricately carved metal covering him, and Exa has replaced the plates of her arms and legs with ones with patterns of swirling, geometric shapes on them.

I’ve never seen Graff and Xenia’s outfits before. They didn’t join us last time. There’s no other way to describe both of them other than perfect. Not a single hair or seam is out of place on either of them. Graff has covered up a lot of his scars, leaving just a few tasteful ones to accentuate his face. Xenia stands proud beside him, her long dress trailing behind her. I swear she must have some sort of electronics hidden in her train, it sways back and forth as she walks.

“Good.” Juno says when we’re all finally together. “Everyone clear on your stories? Scarlet?”

“I hate the Mnemosyne.” That’s about all that changed. I need to put some emotion into it. They killed my dad. Make it true. Get angry. “I hate the Mnemosyne.” I practically growl the words.

“You’re trying a little hard.” Juno reaches out to shift how my jacket is sitting on my shoulders. “Don’t force that fact to be true. It is true.”

“I hate the Mnemosyne.” I soften a little, but keep an edge in my voice.

“A little better. It’s been years. It’s an old wound.”

“I hate the Mnemosyne.” It doesn’t come out all that different from the first time I tried, but it carries a little more weight. 

“Good enough.”

“Just good enough? What can I do better?” I ask.

“Nothing right now. You’re good enough. We can get you some acting lessons later.”

“I could have done that last week.” I mumble.

“You’re good enough.” She says for the third time, her patience quickly waning. “The mechs wouldn’t be. And if someone asks about our last op, the one where we evac’d a research base?”

“Which mission? Our previous was a smash and grab, not an evac?” Our cover story flows smoothly from my mouth.

“Good. Just stay quiet and follow my lead.”

“I can do that.”

“I’m counting on it.” She leans against the holographic table and pulls up a file. “Janus, status.”

“They’re on their way up, leaving the atmosphere. Scans are showing a group of four lightly armored soldiers accompanying our liaison. Passing you his file now."

“Confirmed.” A document appears before Juno for only a moment before she dismisses it. “Already memorized it.”

“I expected so. Passing the liaison docking permission for the living room airlock. ETA, six minutes.”

“I wasn’t supposed to read that, right?” I quietly ask Exa.

“Nope.” She confirms.

“Ok good. Just making sure."

Very few words are shared between us while we wait. I keep my eyes on the windows as they display their arrival. The shuttle is small, about the same size as our dropship’s cockpit. I’m guessing it’s not much more than a room with an engine strapped to it. You really don’t need anything else for a shuttle. Even life support would only have to last a few hours, a few days at most.

The shuttle pulls up beside our ship and slides in next to us. A flat portion of the wall next to the kitchen slides open.

“I didn’t even know we had a door there.” I whisper to Exa.

“I’ll slide the ship's blueprints to you later.”

“Thanks.”

The door opens and five people step in. The man leading the group is huge, and vast portions of his skin are covered in scars and old burns. He’s well over six feet with arms that might actually be thicker than my torso. Why do we have to dress up when he’s just wearing a t-shirt and pants?

The people behind him are at least less casually dressed. They’re wearing crisp military uniforms. Their rifles are in their arms, but they’re at ease.

“It appears you caught us overdressed.” Juno steps forward and holds out her hand. “I’m Juno.”

“Richard.” The man’s hand dwarfs Juno’s. “Stow your weapons, boys.”

The soldiers follow his order instantly. In unison they sling their weapons over their shoulder and fold their hands behind their back.

“Expecting something different?” Juno takes a step back and folds her arms across her chest.

“Not many core world mercenaries come out this far. A show of force keeps our home-grown boys in line.”

“It’s not my first time out here. I take no offense.”

“Glad to hear it.” Richard glances around the living room. “It’s a nice ship. I assume the back half is for mech storage?”

“Take a look for yourself.” Juno gestures towards the airlock, and walks beside him as they go. “I’ve been doing this for long enough that the number of years doesn’t matter. If mercs around here are like I remember, I’m sure you could appreciate a group with a more delicate touch. You received our history, correct?”

“It’s an impressive record.” He confirms. “I do have a few concerns, however.”

“I’ll do my best to reassure you.”

The airlock opens and I follow everyone through. Richard takes in the view and nods to himself.

“Who’s your mechie?”

“Scarlet.” Juno nods towards me. “Our newest pilot and mechie.”

The liaison does a double take at me. I don’t even think he noticed me when he first came in.

“A lot of work for a young recruit.” He says to me.

“Exa and I make it work.” I don’t look away from him. “I built my first mech in the junkyard I grew up in. This is easier than that.”

“What, scared someone might tell you you're too young for this? Won't find that in the frontier worlds.”

“Good.”

“Mm-hmm.” He takes in the mechs and continues forward. The pile of crates holding Mnemosyne relics have been split into two piles, one of them significantly larger than the other. A few of them are open with materials made of Mnemosyne chitin inside. “So… Where’d you get all this?”

“Big pile’s Brickhouse’s.” Juno answers. “Small is ours. We didn’t spend much time in Mnemosyne space. Ran into Brickhouse pretty quickly and came here to finish his job.”

“That’s more than I expected.”

“Yeah. Craziest thing he got his hands on is a biocomputer.” Juno taps the side of a small box. “It died in our atmosphere, but we sealed it to prevent further damage.”

“Shit. Alright, you want to get started making a deal?”

“For our stuff I do. I want Brickhouse’s share paid out to the people he and his crew left behind.”

“I’ll see it done.” Richard signals to his men, and two of them start to move the larger pile to their ship. The other two move towards our small pile and begin scanning every box with small handheld scanners. “Now, about that concern.”

“Yes. I assume you’re talking about the mine mission?”

“I am indeed. What did you find there?”

“I believe I am the only one qualified to answer that.” Janus speaks up. “All I can say is that I found something related to the Mnemosyne. Any specifics would break my agreement with Earth.”

“And why work with Earth?” He asks.

“Multiple reasons.” Juno takes control of the conversation once again. “One of which I’m aware it’s not what you want to hear, so I will lay it out first. I hold a great personal respect for Earth. However, I do not let that dictate my actions. Earth simply has the most resources, and passing on our name to the Mnemosyne gives us leverage. Our plans were to use that leverage to get out when we got into trouble over our heads.”

“You didn’t use it to get Brickhouse out?” Richard asks.

“Surrendering and attempting to cash in my leverage would have saved him, yes, but they would have taken back their stolen property. Brickhouse wouldn’t let that happen. He seemed very convinced you can make good use of what he found and didn’t want to lose the resources. And I can’t pretend I wasn’t itching for a fight.”

“Explain.” He prods.

“The Mnemosyne killed my previous scout, Scarlet’s father.”

Richard looks at me, and I glare back. It’s an old wound, but still hurts. I don’t need to say anything.

“We took a lot of them with us.” Juno gets his attention once again. She put so much emotion into her words that she’s almost convincing me. “Just not enough to get him out.”

“And you could get his resources out, but not his crew?”

“He knew how it’d end, always wanted to go out fighting. Hell, he did the same thing on a transport op we ran together a decade ago. I’m just sad I couldn’t pull his ass out of the fire a second time. As for his crew, most of them weren’t the ones I knew a decade ago, but Brickhouse has always had a knack for building loyalty, even to a fault.”

“He was a good leader.” Richard confirms, and steps over to our small pile. “What do you intend to do after this?”

“Get into trouble.” Juno laughs. “These alien bastards still have to pay for killing Niel. Might stick around here if you can help us do that.”

“We might just be able to.” His companions finish scanning the boxes and stand up. “What’s the total?”

“Thirty thousand.” The soldier answers.

Richard glances over at Juno, waiting for an answer.

“I’ll skip the haggling if you can promise more work. I want something that’ll really screw them. Hell, I’ll sell my leverage if I have to.”

Richard pauses for just a moment, but regains his composure almost instantly. 

“Let me check with my superiors. You might be just what we need to make a trade.”

“I’ll be happy to assist. For the right price, that is.” Juno adds with a smirk.

“Naturally. We’ll discuss it.”

“Try to make it quick if you can, we’re antsy to get moving. I don’t want to spend more than a few days here.”

“Give me twenty-four hours. It’ll move faster if you help us lug these boxes back to our ship.” 

“Let’s get to work, people!” Juno orders.

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