When you join the military, none of the recruiting material shows you trying to stow away on a bot freighter headed to a war zone on a hellhole of a planet.
But there I was.
Add to my list of crimes that I’d sort of stolen my power armor. I say sort of because technically, I signed it out of the armory to do perfectly legal cleaning and maintenance. But somehow, I don’t think a military judge would see it that way at my court-martial.
Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.
I walked down the station’s wide docking corridor, trying not to draw attention. Not that I could remain inconspicuous while wearing a sixty-kilogram armored bioenhancement suit—that was the official name for what we grunts called power armor. Each fall of my polymer boots thudded on the deck, screaming for everyone passing in the busy walkway to look at me. I kept my eyes forward, my pace steady, trying to project the image of someone who belonged. Everyone on station had seen augmented infantrymen before. Nothing new here. If I acted like I belonged there, the maintenance workers and cargo specialists would have no reason to question me.
Technically (there’s that word again), I hadn’t broken any rules.
Yet.
I rationalize once more because while I didn’t belong in the loading area, nothing prohibited it. Given my rank of sergeant, nobody would say anything about me taking my suit for a stroll. Nope. At this point, I could talk my way out of everything right up until the point where I stepped onto United Federation of Planets supply ship S4044, berthed at bay lima 9. The moment I crossed that threshold, I ceased being a sergeant in the augmented infantry and became a common stowaway. Or, rather, an uncommon one, considering I was going toward the war zone, rather than away from it like a sane person. But I had my reasons.
I passed the wide bay doors of lima 8, the curve of the station keeping lima 9 out of sight. I had a hundred meters of corridor left to change my mind.
Not likely.
I kept my pace steady, not hurrying. I couldn’t appear nervous. That would just make me more obvious. This was the only supply ship headed to the surface of Gallia in the next twelve hours, and I had a ticking clock. Every hour made it less likely that I’d find Kendrick, the soldier we left behind when we pulled out of combat under duress. We don’t leave people behind in my squad. Except we did, and I had to fix it. Now, almost a day later . . . he might be alive, he might be dead. But my suit’s display said he was alive when we left, and I’d trained my squad well. I’d trained this soldier especially well. I fully expected to find him alive and holed up, waiting for us to come get him. But even if the worst had happened, I could recover his body. At least then we’d know.
It wasn’t going to come to that, though.
I tried to do it the right way first. But the captain—my company commander—told me they couldn’t support a mission for a single soldier stuck behind enemy lines. I’d expected that. He might have been right, though I’m not sure he asked. My captain didn’t like to rock the boat with his higher command. And if he did ask, he didn’t ask hard enough. At least that was my considered opinion.
I’d expected that too.
Well, fuck him. You know, with all due respect . . . which was none. I took care of my people, and they took care of me. I needed to find Kendrick, and if the captain wouldn’t help, I’d do it myself.
Despite what it sounds like, I’m not stupid. I did recognize the inherent flaws of my plan. Plan. I probably should put that word in air quotes. It was more like a series of ideas at this point—an initial concept, and then some branches, depending on what happened. There were too many unknowns to get much beyond that. Truth be told, I hadn’t thought much past the point of getting to the planet. That alone seemed daunting enough. I’d figure out the rest once I got there, find a way to get to Kendrick’s last known location, and then play it by ear. Things would work out for me. They always did.
Mostly.
I want to stop right here and make something clear, because I think it’s important. Going back into a combat zone after a missing soldier looks like something a good soldier would do, but I’m not a good soldier. Never have been, never will be. I didn’t even want to be a soldier, but three years ago I was running from some stuff, and the military seemed like a pretty good place to hide. I probably should have thought that one through a little better, because now I had served three years of a six-year contract, and I couldn’t get out. And I had a guy who counted on me stuck down behind enemy lines in a war zone.
I wasn’t a good soldier, but I was a good friend. A good person to know. If you’re in trouble, I’m a guy you want on your side, because I’m going to help. I’m going to lie, cheat, steal, or whatever else it takes to protect my friends. Period.That includes stowing away on a supply ship to a combat zone. Was it the right thing to do? Who knows—right and wrong are personal judgments that people use to make sense of things. To pretend their actions have some sort of justification. Usually, what they really mean when they say right is that it aligns with their personal moral compass. Unless we’re talking about some sort of super-evolved person who can see with true objectivity. Maybe you think that’s you. You’re probably wrong.
My personal moral compass? It has a lot of wiggle to it.
But I digress.
I needed to focus. The foot traffic slowed after I passed dock 8—just three people in the wide corridor, two walking the same direction as me and one coming toward me. According to my source, they’d have the ship loaded already, everything completed for launch except for the final inspection by the loadmaster. I had a ten-minute window to get myself on board and hidden well enough that the loadmaster wouldn’t find me. Staff Sergeant Ella Jandus had a reputation as a hard-ass. With most people, I’d have tried to make a deal. After all, that’s what I do best. But not Jandus. She wasn’t the type to turn a blind eye for a favor. That’s okay. We need honest soldiers like her to make up for ones like me. It just didn’t happen to fit my needs at the moment, and unlike Jandus, I always put the needs of my friends above the needs of the military.
I adjusted my pace so I’d hit the bay door at a moment where nobody else would be close. The ship didn’t have dedicated security. It didn’t need it. Nobody wanted to go to Gallia. People tended to avoid areas that might kill them unless they didn’t have a choice. Soldiers might try to get on ships leaving the planet, up to the relative safety of the well-defended space station. On the off chance that someone did want to head planetside, they’d take one of a dozen daily shuttles. I’d considered forging orders to get me on one of those, but that would have taken time that I didn’t have, and then I’d still have had to explain my armor . . . and where I was going once we landed.
This was easier.
Kind of.
There might have been a lack of security, but there was no shortage of cameras—they covered everything on the station. After the fact, once someone realized I’d gone, perhaps they’d look back through the footage and see me, but I trusted that nobody would notice one random video in real time. The station had thousands of cameras, and I had to believe the AIs had other priorities. Hopefully. As I mentioned, it wasn’t a great plan.
But you go with what you’ve got. I stepped through the bay door onto the ship, crossing the line of no return.
The sensors in the face shield of my helmet automatically adjusted to the lower light inside the freighter’s cargo bay, allowing me to see. I hurried past the first stack of crates to obscure myself from anyone outside, then triggered the camouflage feature in my suit. My dull gray armor would change to blend with its surroundings. I didn’t have the near invisibility of a scout’s suit—they can’t build every feature into every suit because of the power drain—but I’d take any advantage I could get.
I moved quickly through the chained-down pallets and webs of cargo-strapped material, searching for a hiding spot. I looked up to the ceiling, some four meters above me, and found what I needed. I opened a storage alcove marked Tie-Downs and grabbed two short straps. Gotta love the military for conveniently labeling everything. I could have clamped onto the ceiling using the magnetic grip of my suit, but the less power I burned now, the better.
I climbed up a stack of crates, balanced myself on top, then leaped for the ceiling using the mechanical assist in my suit’s legs to propel me the extra meter I needed. I grabbed both sides of a support beam, then held myself there with one mech-assisted hand while I snapped the hook at one end of a strap to a D-ring in the roof. The rings were probably meant to help tie down cargo, if needed, but now I used them to form a makeshift hammock that would keep me up on the ceiling and hopefully out of sight. My suit’s camouflage would hide me, but the straps would stand out clearly if anyone looked. I had to trust the shadows and the hope that the loadmaster wouldn’t look up.
The good thing was that she had no reason to look up, with all the cargo below me, but even so, I put my odds at around seventy percent for success. I’d bet more on worse, and as always, I had a backup plan in case I got caught. I liked plans on top of plans, in case the first one went wrong. Because the first one always went wrong.
At least in my experience. Which is part of how I ended up in the military in the first place.
The loadmaster entered through the bay door what felt like an hour later but according to my HUD was only a few minutes. She bent to check the straps on the first pallet, unaware of me hanging above her like some sort of camouflaged space spider. She stood so close I could hear her breathing, and after that, all I could think about was my own breathing. I had my helmet on, but still I concentrated on every breath, holding my mouth open wide and controlling the air flow to make no noise.
She worked her way through the cargo compartment slowly, checking every connector. Staring down from above, I had time to memorize everything about her. She wore a dark blue jumpsuit, and had close-cropped hair except hadn’t had it cut recently, so a layer of fuzz grew on the back of her neck. She hummed a song to herself that I didn’t recognize.
After she checked the last pallet, she stood, stretched, and leaned her head back as if to pop her neck. She couldn’t miss seeing me. I waited for her to call out, tried to come up with a pithy line that I could use to defuse the situation. Maybe I could get her to keep it between us. Maybe I could get her to throw me off the ship, but not report it. No harm, no crime.
She didn’t see me.
I don’t know why. Regardless, she gathered herself and made her way back down the dual rows of pallets and out through the bay door. A moment later the back hatch of the ship whirred to life and closed with the sound of hydraulics and success. The lights went out, quickly replaced by the low light amplification of the sensors in my helmet, which cast everything in shades of gray. I considered letting myself down from my ridiculous hiding spot, but decided I’d wait for the ship to start moving to be safe. Then I’d have to bullshit whoever I ran into at the other end, but that was my strong suit. I had plenty of ability to bullshit.
The deep thrum of the ship’s engines kicked in, and the hull shimmied a little, shaking me in my roost. The pitch grew higher, rising from an almost imperceptible bass note up through the register to what would soon be a high-pitched whine. I’d heard that sound dozens of times.
The engines died, the wail fading away like the desperate gasp of an electric horn with a dying battery.
My brain whirred, running through a dozen possible scenarios. There could be a legit reason for—
My thought cut out as the lights blazed on in the compartment, blinding me for a split second before my sensors adapted. The ship’s door lowered slowly, like the maw of impending doom.
“Come on out.” The person spoke with authority, like they were used to being obeyed. A lot of people in the military had that. I think maybe they teach it in a class somewhere.
I didn’t answer. I mean . . . what could I say? I hadn’t thought through the part of the plan where I got confronted after the loadmaster left.
“We know you’re in there. Stand down.”
My mind finally clicked into gear, riffling through potential responses, possible actions, any way out. After a few seconds of thought, I dismissed them all as useless.
“I’m here. I’m coming out.”
I unstrapped myself and fell to the top of a pallet of packing crates with a thud that reverberated through the too-quiet compartment. My armor absorbed the minor shock, and I quickly hopped down to the deck and headed for the bay door.
“Halt there.” I got my first look at them. A station police sergeant, wearing a black armored vest over a tan utility suit. Three companions flanked them. The team didn’t quite have their weapons raised at me, but they certainly had them ready.
I showed them my empty hands, leaving my rifle clipped to the side of my armor. I still presented a threat, wearing power armor—in fact, I could have taken them all out. But attacking UFP soldiers doing their duty was too far. Even though I didn’t like it, I was a UFP soldier, and most days we were on the same side.
No, I was caught, and it served my best interests to appear as friendly as possible. Always good business to be friendly when staring down four people with weapons. Besides, now that they’d caught me, I was on to plan B, and for that to work, I had to be alive.
“No trouble from me. Promise.”
The four SPs didn’t move. “Remove your armor.”
“Understood.”
Friendliness aside, for a second I considered making a break for it. It didn’t fit my new designs, but habits are hard to break. Fight or flight and all that. I moved my hand slowly—no need to make anyone jumpy—and pressed the two buttons on my clavicle while simultaneously flicking my eyes across my heads-up to enter the code that triggered my suit’s exit function. I stood perfectly still for the twelve seconds it took for the suit to unhinge itself and release me, and then pulled my helmet off and—still moving slowly—set it on top of a crate to my left. That left me unarmed, standing in my undersuit, my weapons staying attached to my armor. But I kept my hands visible anyway.
“Gas?” The lead SP stepped forward into the light. Sergeant Ken Burrows. I hadn’t planned for them to be there, but I knew them well.
“What’s up, Ken?” I asked.
“Gas . . . what the fuck? Why are you stowing away on board a supply ship going to a combat zone?”
“You know me, my friend. I’ve always got an angle working.”
Ken looked at me, trying to find the story. “This about Kendrick?”
“You heard about that?”
“Of course. Everybody has. We all love Kendrick.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I had to try.”
Ken hesitated, as if they were afraid to say the next bit. “I’m sorry, Gas, but I’ve got to run you in on this.”
“No problem. We’ve all got jobs to do.”
“If it was just me, you know I’d let you slide.”
“I know you would.” I believed them. They weren’t a bad person, and I did them favors from time to time. I did a lot of people favors as part of my side hustles. I got them things, provided services—whatever I could do to make a buck or favors in return I could cash in later. The military could keep me under contract for six years, but they couldn’t quash my entrepreneurial spirit.
“It’s just that this one came from higher. You know how it is.” Higher, meaning this wasn’t random. Someone sent them after me, and that meant somebody higher would be following up to see the result.
“I get it. You had no choice.” I gestured to the other soldiers. “You don’t need your squad, though. I’m not going to give you any trouble. I know the way to D Cell.” D Cell was short for detention cell, short-term holding for people who broke the rules but hadn’t been convicted of a crime. Not a great way to spend a day, but better than the brig, where they kept the convicted criminals. If all went well, I wouldn’t end up there.
They thought about it. “I better keep one with me. Just for appearances.”
“Sure. You know best. Could you make sure my suit gets back to the armory?”
“Will do.”
We headed out toward D Cell—I really did know the way. I’d been there often enough, though never for long. Funny thing, somehow nothing ever seemed to stick. At least they didn’t cuff me. We’d be traversing public corridors, and it was already embarrassing enough walking with SPs. Ken did their best to make it cool, keeping pace beside me while their partner trailed behind.
“How’d you know I was in there?” I’d told Putty I’d be away, and for him to cover for me, but he hadn’t told anyone. He wouldn’t. Not Putty. He was part of my team, and I trusted my team as much as I trusted myself. It had to be something else. Someone else.
“Someone from higher called dispatch. Dispatch called me. That’s all I know.”
“That seems unusual,” I said.
“A little,” said Ken. “But it happens.”
It happens. But that didn’t explain why it happened to me. I smelled a rat. “If you find anything else out, you’ll let me know?”
“Absolutely.” They walked in silence for a few seconds, as if afraid to bring up the next subject. “Hey . . . with Kendrick gone . . .”
I knew what they wanted to know, so I made it easy on them. It pays to keep customers happy like that. I spoke in a lower voice. “You want to know about the card game.”
“Right. Sorry.”
“No worries.” Ken loved their cards. They weren’t any good, so other players liked having them in the game too. “Putty will run it now that Kendrick’s out. You know what they say—the show must go on.”
“Thanks, man.” Ken cocked their head, the way people do when they’re getting a message in their ear. “That’s weird.”
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Change of plan. We’re not going to D Cell. We’re going to the command group.”
We continued on for a bit. If I had to guess, Ken was wondering what the fuck was going on.
Me? I had at least some idea. I intended to try to get to Kendrick on my own if I made it down to the planet, but that was always a long shot. What I wanted was attention, and our detour to the command group said I had it. I could work with that.
We turned right at the next corridor and walked through a narrower hall to a lift that most soldiers avoided if possible.The words Command Group were stenciled on the closed door, as if everyone didn’t know where it went. Command group implied the station commander. The general. No soldier wanted her to know their name, and most would go out of their way to avoid her.
As I said, I’m not your regular soldier.
I didn’t let Ken in on the fact that I didn’t mind the new destination, but I didn’t pretend that it bothered me, either. I had a rule I lived by: wherever I found myself, that was exactly where I wanted to be. It’s an attitude that people gravitate toward, for whatever reason. So that was my play. We were at the command group, and I tried to act as if it was normal and expected. As far as anybody would see from me, I owned the place.
Ken held their wrist device up to the scan pad, and the door opened.
We went up four decks, and the door whooshed open into an elegant room just outside the command suite. I’d been there once before, supervising a cleaning detail as they vacuumed the deep blue carpet. But I didn’t pay attention to the well-appointed surroundings this time. My eyes went to the person waiting to enter the lift after we disembarked.
Sergeant Kara Miller.
We called her Killer, because, well . . . it rhymed with Miller, and her first name started with a K.
Cut us some slack. We’re soldiers, not poets.
Killer led third squad. In theory they were sister squad to my fourth, but if we were siblings, we were the kind who didn’t get along.
I stared at her, and she met my eyes for a split second before turning her head and pretending she hadn’t. Despite being my age—twenty-two—she looked older. Apparently being an evil minion of the lord of the underworld aged a person. I stared at the back of her head, her textbook blond bun. By-the-book Killer Miller leaving the command group. That explained how I’d been caught.
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