Sora

“Is that really him?” I asked the bartender.

“Yep, that’s Accel,” she replied, before setting a colorful drink down in front of me. “Whatever you’re going to do to him, make sure it doesn’t lead back here. Most of my clients are Syndicate and if word gets out that a lieutenant was killed at my bar, then it’s my ass on the line.”

I tagged Accel, and a red outline appeared around his body. The implants that Bryce had paid for were in an entirely different league from my last set. I could now easily track where he was, even if he was fully obscured by the crowded dance floor of the bar.

“I won’t kill him, just rough him up a bit. He hurt one of the girls again and the mistress is tired of dealing with his shit,” I lied as I lifted the radioactive-looking beverage and shot the bartender a questioning look. “He actually drinks this stuff?”

She shrugged. “There’s no accounting for taste. It’s his favorite.” The bartender leaned in close and whispered to me, “Hey, do you think you could let the mistress know I helped? I could really use a discount, or if you’re free later, then, maybe?” She let the question trail off with a shy smile.

I looked the human over. She wasn’t bad looking, softer than my usual type, but sometimes soft had its appeal. It was certainly tempting, but not tonight.

I had already spent the entire evening tracking down where the Syndicate’s favorite bar was, and then figuring out a cover story. I was tired and still had to flirt my way into gaining information about the Syndicate compound.

Thankfully, this terrible drink, combined with a light sedative, would help.

“Unfortunately, I think I’m going to be busy tonight,” I said.

She sighed and stood up straight again. “Figures, the pretty ones usually are.”

“Perhaps some other time?” I sent her a contact request over the feed, which she accepted with a smile.

“I’ll look forward to it.” Her eyes went distant for a moment as she checked her implants for something. “Sora? That’s a pretty name.”

“Thank you.” I quickly checked my list of contacts for her name and tried not to let the disappointment show on my face. “Samantha, is it?”

“Please, just call me Sammy, I never really liked Samantha all that much. It just sounds too formal, and that’s not me.” She inadvertently sealed her own fate with a grin.

I would need to remember to remove her from my contacts after I left the bar. Doing it now would be suspicious, and I wasn’t about to sleep with a girl who went by the same name as my sister.

“Right, well, I’ll talk to you later, Samantha.” I stood up with as much grace as I could muster. “I’ve got a drink to deliver.”

~~~~

“Where did you get this map?” Lysc asked.

We were meeting with Lysc and Daria in one of their hidden warehouses as we prepared for the assault. There was a hand-drawn map of the Syndicate compound resting atop a crate.

My head was killing me. Accel had more of a tolerance than I’d expected, and I had to at least maintain the appearance of keeping up with him. Apparently, even top of the line nanites couldn’t overcome this hangover.

“Sora got it off of one of the Syndicate lieutenants. They assure me it’s accurate,” Bryce said.

“It's very, uh, squiggly,” Lysc said.

“He was drunk when he drew it,” I said. “Didn’t want him to remember it.”

He was also high on some of the leftover slush I had borrowed from Thea, and drugged by more than a few mood enhancers from my personal stash.

However bad my hangover was, it was leagues better than whatever Accel must have had to deal with that morning.

Lysc laughed. “Nothing can make a person more honest than unhealthy amounts of alcohol.”

“Is that why you kept making me drink the other night?” Thea asked.

“No, that was because you’re fun to drink with,” Lysc said. “And because I like that whiskey.”

Bryce crossed her arms and smiled. “Careful, Lysc, Thea is already taken.”

“Is she, captain? I don’t see a ring on her finger,” Lysc teased. “Maybe I’ll challenge you for her heart.”

That actually seemed to upset Bryce, and Thea was blushing.

It was rare to get a decent reaction out of Thea. I’d have to remember to push those buttons later. But, for now, my head was pounding and my patience was running thin.

“As much as I love to watch the captain’s face change colors,” I interrupted. “Could we please focus on the task at hand?”

“Fine, but I can’t read this map,” Lysc said. “Explain these blobs to me.”

They set it up in a rough square shape with shield pylons positioned in the four corners. In the center was an enormous hangar that had powerful anti-aircraft guns installed on the roof.

There were several small garages scattered throughout, but only three primary buildings: a subspace communications transmitter and the headquarters on the eastern edge of the compound, along with a large barracks on the western end.

I explained those details to the group, pointing to the corresponding shapes on the map.

“The anti-aircraft guns are the first obstacle,” I said. “They’re automated to shoot down anything that isn’t pre-identified as friendly.”

“Can’t we just walk in?” Thea asked.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“No, the Syndicate hid their base deep in the jungle,” Lysc said. “Approaching from the ground would require us to fight our way through deadly plants and beasts. We’d take heavy casualties and be easy to detect.”

“Even if we could just walk up to the compound, the shield would stop us from getting inside,” I said. “It’s designed to defend against both orbital bombardment and physical intrusion.”

“Could Samira fake a friendly signal?” Bryce asked.

Sami shook her head. “Without one of their IFFs to reference, I would just be guessing at the frequency and if I got it wrong, we’d be dead.”

“Also, the guns are automated, but the shield isn’t,” I said. “We’d need to convince them to lower it, which means passing a visual inspection.”

“Would it be possible to arrange a meeting of some sort?” Bryce asked.

“Not inside their compound. The only official meetings we’ve had with the Syndicate have been off world,” Lysc said. “They’re surprisingly careful.”

“Where exactly are these meetings?” Bryce asked.

“In real-space, a few AU from the planet and on the far side of the beacon. It’s never exactly the same coordinates, but they follow that trend,” Daria explained.

“Would you be able to arrange one?” Bryce asked.

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Daria said.

“You’re thinking we arrange a meeting, and then ‘borrow’ their ship to get past the shield?” Thea asked. “Would that work?”

“We would need to ensure whoever we’re meeting with has access to the compound, but it could work,” Daria said. “Assuming they can’t get a message back to the base before we take control of the ship.”

“I can handle keeping them quiet,” Bryce said. “But we would only have the one ship. I’m not sure how many people we could fit.”

“Only about a dozen. Syndicate ships are pretty small,” Lysc said.

“That means Thea and the captain, then whoever you would trust from the pack,” I said.

“Ten pack members?” Lysc asked. “Are you sure we want it to be this easy?”

“I’m not so sure ‘easy’ is the right word,” I warned. “Once you’re past the shields, you’ll need to fight through nearly fifty of their most elite members to hold the headquarters, then open the portal to throw in the bomb, and after that it’s either kill everybody or crack their security to open the shields.”

“There’s also the subspace transmitter,” Bryce added. “I can block feed access and short-range communication, but I can’t stop them from getting a message out over subspace.”

“If they alert the other Syndicate factions, then they’ll want vengeance for Rajak’s death,” Lysc said. “We would be worse off than we are now.”

“I could use illusion magic to make myself invisible, and drop off the side of the ship after we’re let past the shield, but before we land,” Thea said. “After that, it wouldn’t take me long to destroy the array.”

“Most subspace arrays have their important parts underground, along with redundancies to prevent spontaneous outages,” Samira said. “Destroying it would take time unless you’re willing to blow up the entire compound.”

“You would have to kill everybody inside and then stop anybody from activating it,” I said. “Defending the entire building would be difficult to do with just one person.”

“Could you make more than just yourself invisible?” Bryce asked.

Thea shrugged. “I could probably do one more, but only if they stayed close.”

“Take Rashka with you,” Daria said. “She’s our heaviest hitter besides Thea, and the two of them should be able to hold it.”

“That leaves the rest of us to take over the headquarters. It’s not the most elegant plan, but it could work,” Bryce said. “How long will it take you to arrange a meeting?”

“If I make it sound urgent, then the day after tomorrow,” Daria said.

“Any objections?” Bryce asked.

“No objections. Let’s kill these Syndicate bastards,” Lysc snarled.

~~~~

We boarded an auto-shuttle after spending a few hours sorting out the finer details of the assault plan. Everybody seemed exhausted. Even the captain was sitting heavily in her seat.

Although, some amount of that was clearly just an excuse to lean her head on Thea’s shoulder.

I was the one who eventually broke the silence. “What do you think, captain?”

“You’re going to have to be more specific, Sora,” Bryce spoke without opening her eyes. “I’m usually thinking about a lot of things.”

Thea kissed her head, which caused the captain to hum slightly. The two of them were sickeningly cute in exactly the way that made me want to pull their hair or steal their lunch money. I heroically pushed past that feeling.

“Specifically, the assault. I’m still not comfortable hiding on the ship while you two risk your lives.”

Bryce sighed and untangled herself from Thea to sit up so that she could look me in the face.

“I know that you’re not, and I would feel safer with you fighting with us,” she said.

“Then why? I’ve already risked exposure getting that map. I may as well go with you.”

“You can’t honestly tell me you think the lieutenant will remember you,” Bryce said. “Besides, you being exposed by the Syndicate isn’t my only concern. What would we do if they killed you? Gods forbid that something would happen to any of us, but Thea and I are at least replaceable. If something happens to you, we’re dead in the water.”

Accel wouldn’t recognize me, I was sure. Hells, he probably didn't even remember his own name after last night.

I was also careful not to let anybody know my name and avoided getting my face recorded by the security cameras in the bar. But none of that mattered.

“Captain, you’re selling yourself short, and you know it,” Sami said. “We would’ve been dead the moment we entered the Aether if you hadn’t been so quick to cast a spell that nearly killed you. And don’t even get me started on Thea.”

“Oh no, please get started on Thea,” Thea said.

Sami snorted. “You hold the whole fucking ship together. I may fix it, Sora flies it, and the captain makes decisions, but without you… without you, the whole thing just falls apart. I’ve had Sora’s cooking before, and we wouldn’t have lasted two days.”

Thea got up from her seat and clasped onto Sami with a hug, all while Sami squirmed and tried to push her away. “Aw! Thanks, Sami, you’re so sweet.”

“Get off me, you stupid devil! I didn’t mean any of it!”

I ignored the two of them, focusing instead on the captain.

“Sami is right. Each of us is equally valuable, which is why we need to use every resource at our disposal to keep us all alive,” I said.

“I know,” she finally conceded. “You’re right, it’s just, Sora, you’re so—”

“Young?” I asked. “Bryce, I’m not an elf like you. I’ll probably only live about as long as most humans, well, longer now, since you’ve insisted on paying for better nanites. Regardless, twenty-six isn’t exactly young for our race.”

“It wasn’t like it was an easy twenty-six years, either,” Sami said. She had finally given up on fighting Thea.

“I’ve been training to fight since I could walk and Mother never went easy on me,” I said. “Besides, there’s another thing that you’re forgetting.”

“And what’s that?” the captain asked.

“Whatever grudge that Mother has against me and Sora won’t mean shit compared to what the rest of the Syndicate is going to do if they learn that you’ve killed one of their lords.” Sami said. “If word gets out that Rajak is dead and that any of us were there when it happened, then we’re going to have more problems than just Mother.”

We sat in silence while the captain processed everything. I felt strangely nervous. I respected Bryce and I would listen to her if she still thought that I should stay behind. This would be the last time that I would bring it up.

Decisions like these were easier when I could feel my instincts pushing in a direction, but they were completely silent on the matter. Well, not completely silent.

I could feel that dealing with Rajak was important and that this would be pivotal for the captain. Whatever was going to happen at the compound was going to be vital, possibly historic, and I wanted to be there when it happened.

The captain finally nodded. “Alright, Sora, you’re right. It’s unfair for me to exclude you just because it’s dangerous,” she said. “It’s going to be dangerous for all of us, and having you there would improve our odds.”

I let out a breath that I hadn’t realized I had been holding.

“But,” she continued. “You’re coming with me and Thea to buy armor tomorrow. Just because it’s dangerous doesn’t mean we can’t mitigate the risk as much as possible, and the cost is coming out of your share this time.”

I smiled. “Deal.”