The Fall

Klaxons warbled piercing cries signaling the dawn of flight. Amber light flooded along the cavernous interior of Casey's coffin. Looking up he saw the ghastly lighthouse that had blazed to life. Sweeping illumination cast a palid light that played over the rugged angles and worn steel surrounding him. The superstructure quaked as a series of impacts clanked, pinged, and ratcheted it inexorably forward.

The chaotic vibration woke his cross, setting it to dance a wild jig. The black iron dangled on silver chain mirroring his anxiety. The blunt edges rattled out panic against the cockpit glass. Slipping out of a haptic glove he reached out and gripped it. Closing his eyes and squeezing hard as if the symbol itself would remain indelible against the flesh of his sweating palm.

The procession ground to a halt and flashing light faded before ominous dark.The shrill blaring cries fell mute as vacuum began filling the chamber. The rumble of two great bay doors opening shook him against the harness as the cradle spun him. Finally he released the cross, and slipped his re-gloved hand back into the interface gauntlet. The ropy silver chain, as it was want to do, spun lazy circles as if finally satisfied. The cross floated upward lazily without gravity.

Far below the the sleek lines of an invading cruiser swam through space. Beams of white plasma streaking away from its main cannons as it pursued the smoking ruins of a dreadnought still struggling to come about. With the once shielding enormous bay doors now open Casey felt naked despite the armor all around him. He willed the cruiser to move faster, but it paid him no attention seeming to barely grow in sight. The earth was just visible from the corner of his vision. Bright and blue and still, so far far below. A glowing form blurred by from out of sight exploding rapidly. Devastation clawed into the open belly of the dropship belching out gouts of flame and tearing something free. Tumbling innards scattered out into space. Two more impacts ripped through the hull of the ship seeming to come closer. He didn’t know what to hope for as he watched. He was just glad it hadn’t been him.

“Undertakers commence drop!” The com crackled into Casey’s helmet from the overly loud speaker to deliver the frivolous order. No one had direct control over their own drop anyway.

Bile threatened to fight passed his clenched teeth. The clamps holding him blew their seals and the thrust of acceleration shot him downward. Hundreds of similar black seeds shot away from identical creaches. The red glare of laser fire erupted from batteries along the surface of the ship below. Casey watched helplessly as the coffin beside him transformed into an inferno before bursting apart and vanishing into nothingness. He held on to stirrups as death rose up to meet them.

Maneuvering thrusters jinked and adjusted for the fire in a random pattern as blistering spreads from below tried to correct for the relatively small and erratic targets. He slammed against his harness and stopped watching anything other than the squad display to the right of his console. Already several of the green outlines glared an angry red.

The hull of the coffin beneath began glowing as the heat from near misses threatened to overwhelm thermal shielding. He stared as it grew to a bright cherry. The tension climbed to the unbearable. He waited with baited breath for it. He counted down the drop with a sick fatalism. It was the most deadly ten seconds imaginable. He knew all it took was just one hit, one bright flash, one moment too slow to jink. And then he was through it. Too close to be targeted, and he dared to look out again away from the displays. Spiraling shapes spun closer as the survivors gathered in fall. While some were shattered and broken but still grotesquely following their protocols he hoped that more seemed to be whole than not.

Peering down the display adjusted and showed only the surface of the cruiser as it grew large enough to eclipse everything else. It was the last thing Casey saw before the harness gripped his head and leashed him roughly upright. The screens shut off completely to prevent motion sickness and mental trauma from witnessing a landing. The woefully inadequate simulation of impact barely nudged him. He watched as a few more squad status lights faded to yellow then went out and glowed red. Some had impacted at too oblique an angle and failed to penetrate and anchor spinning off like human ricochets. Still others had missed the ship entirely firing uncontrollably down to burn up in atmosphere, the lucky ones burned up at least.

The reactor thrummed to life as Casey was released from the harness and finally given control. He reached forward and a massive skeletal steel-shod arm mimicked him. Biomimetic fingers curled against the front shielding of the coffin and he felt the pressure in his hand. He shoved outwards tearing it off the hinges and stepping out into the night. The black cape unfurled behind him to billow unnaturally in the vacuum. The gyroscoping cockpit rolled in compensation as he stomped forward.

He rapidly ran through a series of system’s checks and diagnostics. At around eight meters tall there was a lot of machine beneath him, and a lot that could go wrong with it. They came under fire before he could finish with it. Nearly everyone made it to cover as high velocity slugs started slamming towards them in a dense trail. The single fighter failed to do any real harm before it zipped away, but that meant they were on a time limit. It was just a scout. It was hard to detect something so small and scattered as a boarding party with sensors alone without all the interference blaring around them.

The surface of the ship was broad and gently sloped away from him. It was open and almost completely devoid of any sort of cover besides the still smoldering pillars of coffins scattered around him and the other landers. The others milled about in a seeming daze and Casey felt the hair on the back of his neck prickle. He thumbed his coms.

“What’s going on? Jenna why aren’t we moving?” Casey said. He rolled his neck and blew out air uneasily as he waited too long for a response. They were currently in the relative safety between two massive laser batteries. He checked the rest of visible space for threats. Far overhead against the shining backdrop that was the surface of the moon the shadow of the blocky dropship was being hammered. Geysers of violence sprouted along its’ surface as it was swarmed by a wing of fighters. They might prevent it from making any more landings. Too bad for them that there wasn’t anyone left to send. They should be ok Casey thought, at least until the bombers or something big shows up. Without some ordinance it would take them a long time to destroy the heavily armored ship.

On the earthside Casey watched as a UER ship of the line and destroyer made a broadside pass against an unlucky Eradi cruiser that was caught out of position. The high caliber kinetics blew gaping holes through the pale ship and it was left seemingly dead adrift at the end of their pass. The engines guttering out completely. Casey’s mind was pulled back to the ship when the sound of a static cut in over the air.

“She’s jammed.” came the reply, “I can see her from here.”

“Fuck.” Casey said simply and shut his eyes. He didn’t bother to transmit the curse.

“Well can’t someone just fix her coms? Where is she? All this standing around is making me nervous.” asked Lee.

“You are so fucking green Lee, how the hell did you even make it down here.” snapped Bjorn.

“She’s not being jammed...” a voice explained sadly, “She’s been jammed.”

“You mean like...” Lee said.

“Strawberry? Yeah just like strawberry.” said a fourth voice. It was Miranda of course. She always did have a perverse sense of humor.

It wasn’t supposed to happen, but like plane crashes it still did. Especially during these last few years, it felt like someone was cutting serious corners when it came to all kinds of marine equipment. He supposed these particular units weren’t called coffins for nothing. These suits were never designed for space combat anyway. More like station boarding or colonial suppression. He supposed there was little sense in not using them now that, they had nothing left to lose.

“Bjorn, I guess that makes you..” Casey said.

“Like hell it does. As acting squad leader I have only two commands.” he replied “Number one, Lee you’re on point, and number two Casey you are now in command.”

“What?! But you can’t do that.” said Lee. He was currently backing towards the far sloping edge of the ship’s exterior. “I’m the field mechanic!”

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“I am.” said Bjorn, “Lee you’re on point. And if you fuck this up I’ll pull the trigger myself, where do you think you’re going.”

“Bjorn.” said Casey

“I am not getting shot in the back by this greenhorn. Just look at how he’s holding his rifle. HEY POINT IT UP! NO UP THERE AS IN NOT AT US!” Bjorn was shouting now. His own mech had intercepted the slowly retreating Lee and was shoving the long barreled repeater up and away from the rest of us. “There is no way in hell I’m ever letting you near my...” said Bjorn.

“Bjorn! We don’t have time for this.” said Casey.

“Alright whatever. Get back here before you fall off the edge. But I swear...” said Bjorn his radio chatter ended as Casey grouped him and Lee on a seperate relay.

“Take it to a private channel. Everyone else form up. Standard phalanx we’ll start out by targeting the nearest point defenses.” The image of a middle finger appeared in his prompt courtesy of Bjorn.

“How are we on explosives? Did any of the demolitions team make the landing?”

“No, but luckily one of the zombied drops still had charges intact 3 looked good, I already split them up. Two guppies, one boomer.” said Miranda jogging up beside him. Instead of a shield she lugged the gigantic boomer with one arm. She had painted the weird mask over the skull face. The pink somehow made it a lot worse.

“I guess that’ll have to do let’s get moving. Oh and Miranda.” said Casey.

“Yeah?” She asked.

“Try to stay as far away from me as possible. I don’t even want to be on the same ship still when that thing catches a round and goes off.” he said. She snorted and fell in right beside him.

***

Sorenson stared with glassy eyes at the projection before him. He evaluated it with curt professionalism. The UER ships had finally given up on the hopeless tactic of encompassing the entire earth and instead had pulled back into a binary formation covering the polar caps. The bloated cylinders of bombardment vessels eagerly filled the gaps left between the lines. They flocked out from the darkness like vultures. They had come to feed on the corpse of something dying.

With heavier ships in escort beside them, and the ring encircling the globe finally complete they began. Each slow firing sequence belched and spewed extinction level destruction. Sterilizing force fell toward the earth in violet waves.

The bulk of the Eradi fleet’s combat vessels wrapped the earth’s caps in an ever constricting shroud. There would be no escape for any ship, nor man. The hologram practically glowed in bright bands overlaying the UER clusters.

“Any change?” Ingrid asked.

“None. It is as I said, having failed to abandon this folly they have doomed everyone that remains. Admiral Woolbert is a true fool.” Sorenson said.

She did not doubt it. Ingrid could have reached the same conclusions, but her mind was focused elsewhere at the moment. And he had been the head of fleet security for the family. Why not put him to good use.

“Oh let her be at least she has afforded us this opportunity to study.” Ingrid said.

“Speaking of which she is hailing us again now.” Sorenson said.

She trailed a finger back and forth over her lips three times until she remembered that no one could see her. “So be it, very well put her on screen.” Ingrid said.

An aging and stout woman with short hair as white as her uniform seemed shocked to be viewing anything at all. Her face contorted into indignance.

“It is about time you have answered my hails did you think I could not detect your stealth…”

“Suzanne, let me cut you off right there. No we will not be aiding you in this fight. No you may not conscript this vessel nor any vessel currently under my command. And no we are not going on some suicidal humanitarian errand earthside. Anyone unfortunate enough to still be down on the surface is either boiling now or will shortly be wishing they had been. Honestly entombing yourself beneath the surface while all you hold dear becomes glass has got to be one of the most idiotic and stupendously ridiculous acts of gross cowardice I have ever witnessed. Take solace in the knowledge that this failure will survive you not long at all. As for your people, now to cut to the quick they lack the wit necessary to to prevent themselves from being placed under your command and therefore fail to warrant the risk so yes while admittedly I may have interceded on behalf of some small few them... But no, what is the point? Short of a miracle there is little I or mine could possibly do to reverse this lobotomized catastrophe that you have wrought through shere ineptitude. And to that end I applaud you having reached such a dubious pinnacle. Honestly what possessed you to split your forces against a fleet this size? Never mind don’t answer that it might be contagious. Sorenson strike that from the record.”

“So stricken.” Sorensen deadpanned.

“How dare you! You can’t talk to me that way! You’re just some up jumped exper” Admiral Woolbert began a rebuttal. Sorenson waved to get Ingrid’s attention, they were getting another call.

“Sorry Suzanne, but I’ve got another call coming in do you mind holding?”

“You M-Monster! Rot in He-” She sputtered. But the screen cut off abruptly.Ingrid tapped her fingers across her front teeth, left right up down left left right. That was the right pattern she felt a small knot of tension inside her come undone.

“Ingrid, I have the pilot of scout three reporting. He says he found what you have been looking for...But we’re going to need a distraction.”

Ingrid leaned forward. A braid of her lightly colored hair fell from across her shoulder. All traces of levity were gone as she said coldly. “There is nothing more important than this. Now tell me what it is that I want to know.”

***

“They’re pulling back!” Lee screamed. His left arm was fused into the side of his exosuit. The barrel of his repeating rifle smoked and glowed. Steaming Gore spattered the sides of walls beside him. Heavy box shell casings chunked across the narrow space before snapping together in a mound along the corridor edges. The hysteric mechanic secured the enormous rifle against his back, shoving the barrel down beneath the remains of his still burning and tattered cloak. Or at least he would have if the magnetic carabine it normally secured to hadn’t snapped free like a piece of brittle charcoal.

The gun slammed against and dented the hangar floor beside him. The radio filled with his muttering seemingly ranting voice as he ignored it and reached down for something else. The skeletal fingers of his remaining arm clutched the remains of a comrade with a crunch. Carbon cartilage snapped and popped as his fingers broke through the ruined plating and he gripped it by the sinewy neck.

“What the hell was that noise?!” Bjorn yelled.

Lee ignored him as he tugged the robotic corpse out of the corridor, and out into the hangar. Torn things screeched across the floor as he pulled it in jerks around the corner. It was the gigantic equivalent of a quadruple amputee, and the broken neck made the hunk of remaining face hang at a macabre angle. The servos in his joints whined in protest as he hoisted it upward. He slung it up and against the side of a nearby mag lev sled causing it to dip wildly. Bright yellow warheads or maybe bombs rocked against one another as the slab rocked like an unbalanced canoe. Lee slammed his controls forward and he heaved against the dead weight somehow managing the feat. Displaced munitions tumbled to the floor banging and careening away. With a few more jarring punches the rest finally scattered as he shoved the body into the center of the sled.

Reaching out with a neural command he flicked the virtual mute button silencing the now frantic Bjorn. Gripping one of the hooping bands, that protruded out along the edges of the mag lev, he enacted a plan. He put some distance between himself and the corridor and things that wanted to kill him. The heavy burden glided easily across the distance. The lift did not hum it merely glowed. The corona beneath it flared brightly as he began to move. The only sounds in the hangar were his own echoing footfalls as he slowly made his way across. Lee didn’t stop until he was standing before the immense field covered exits to the hangar.

Letting go of the sled he let it bump into the edge of an immense pilon. He stepped forward until the battered section of his body squeezed against it’s edge. The metal that split the glowing field across from him in twain climbed up into the immense dark recesses of the hangar. The yawning portal was a near perfect invisible except for the faint tinge of green along the edges. He let himself slump against the pillar, enjoying the feedback and stared out into the graveyard along earth’s orbit.

The drifting wreckage that remained over this part of the world would make impossible any kind of satellite or safe orbit for miles. Dead hulks and bits of human fleet careened against the debris and one another devoid of purpose. He watched the meteor shower of flotsam from space. Arcing fireballs descended towards something that was already no longer resembling a serene Earth. He compared the fiery storms of boiling seas and ashed plumes of cities that roiled outward along great cloudfronts to blanket the planet. It looked a lot more like jupiter or mars now than that blue place in his mind’s eye. No longer fighting, the dead had finally made peace. He could see Eradi warships intermingling within the ghostly fleet. An endless procession began to fall out across the world. Coasting along eccentric orbits.

He didn’t bother to turn around as he heard the unique bellowing sound of the enemy crying out from behind. He remembered Bjorn then. Deprived of power and trapped within the chest of that husk. He unsquelched communications and piped his visual feed across. No one should have to die alone and in the dark.

The bellows reached a screeching crescendo as the marching drew near. Turning away from the end of the world Lee witnessed something unexpected. Grasping a writhing giant across the throat Captain Casey was heaving it bodily forward. Bulbous fused digits suctioned and gripped as it struggled jerkily to free itself. The clawed heels scraped uselessly against the mirror surface of the hanger as Casey trudged forward. When he was nearly at the edge it broke free with a panicked strength. It lurched to the side trying to dart away. The crack of a meaty backhand caught it on the jaw stunning it. A spray of blood added to the black phlegm already coating the front of his chipped and scraped skull. Cruel fingers dug into the warty flesh of its face as he wrenched it back violently. It screamed a final time one long drawn out cry as he began slowly shoving its head through the field and out into vacuum. The body eventually stopped jerking and went stiff. In a single motion of contempt Casey placed his foot over the chest and kicked.

The corpse he had flung out began a slow twirling through space.

“Best thing I’ve seen all day.” Bjorn said.

Lee glanced back, but he didn’t see anyone else. And judging from what he had just seen, he hadn’t expected to. Palpable waves of rage and despair were lifting off from the Captain.

He watched as the Captain stared out. An idle hand fingering a large canister strapped to his suit’s waist with thick lines. He watched as it dropped back down and the Captain stopped contemplating something. A radio feed opened up as Casey looped them in.

“...No we’ll only need the one. It’s just us that’s left.” Casey said.

“And?” came an expectant reply.

“There is no need to wait any longer I have the package.”

“Bringing her in now. Be ready in five.”

"Just get us out of here before the charge goes off."

A few minutes later the angular form of a cormorant transport swung sideways and into view. Only it wasn’t a UER vessel and even Lee recognized the house colors of this particular aristocrat. As it tilted forward he saw the bright crest of Pluto decorating the prow.

“Congratulations Captain.” The voice said, “Looks like you survived the fall.”