Chapter Forty-One

Dominos

“Now that is some scary shit,” Colby muttered as the line of Boost Suits marched down the landing ramp, with three lines of armored Rigs following behind.

“When I grow up, I want to be a Boost Suit,” Buddy added in tones of wonder.

“Let’s be honest,” Sec nudged his shoulder. “You’re well over half-way there already.”

“Marshalls Colby and Sec?” The lead suit called as it approached. The voice inside was female and rang with command.

“Headman Hellena,” Colby nodded. “Glad you could join us.”

“Where are the local boys?” Hellena asked, looking around. “We expected to meet reinforcements here.

“That’s us,” Sec said with a smile. “Nice to see you.”

“Mechanized angel of death is just so you!”

“Quiet, please, adults are talking,” Sec patted the cobbled-together speaker. It had to be repaired with what they had left over after a sniper put a bullet through it.

“Two men,” Hellena shook her head. “Two men are not reinforcements.”

“Twenty men,” Sec corrected. “And two of them are Marshalls.”

“I only see two,” Hellena said.

“Well, we don’t like to advertise. We don’t have those fancy tin suits of yours.” Colby grinned. “The guards are a bit shooty over there.”

“And shitty at aiming. How did that guy miss a head as big as ours?”

“I still say he was aiming for the speaker,” Sec said.

“Why aim at a speaker? That makes no sense!”

“You were shouting about their loose butts,” Sec said with a sigh. “People can be sensitive about that.”

“I did not! I said they WERE gaping assholes, not that they HAD gaping assholes.”

The sands were scattered with escape pods like wildflowers in a meadow, the hidden facility in the center of the field no longer hidden as it bristled with weaponry.

“Someone’s compensating for something,” Sec chuckled. “So, here’s the rundown. They have a minefield of a sort, about fifty yards wide, reinforced walls with armored facing and about a hundred snipers on said walls. Inside that is a covered corridor filled with murder holes and guarded by turrets. They’re slug throwers, but damn fast ones. It’s kind of cool; they spin around and absolutely spew slugs at insane speeds.”

“Inside that is a shielded compound with reinforced everything, and then, finally, a bunker with secondary shielding and the comm array.” Colby took over as Sec was getting distracted.

“Almost six hundred inside and several armored positions in to fall back to. It’s a tough nut,” Sec nodded. “Three separate power stations as well. They love a backup, these people.”

“I have eighty people; you claim twenty,” Hellena shook her head. “That still leaves us outnumbered six to one against a dug-in enemy. Not good odds.”

“It all depends on your point of view,” Colby shrugged.

“Where are your people?” Hellena demanded.

“That is a secret,” Sec said gravely.

A series of explosions rocked the enemy compound, fire gushing through the narrow slits in the walls.

“Although that is a small clue.”

“In that case,” Hellena nodded. “Let’s begin.”

Colby dodged and jumped between the lumbering forms of the Armored Rigs, their oversized rifles firing as they moved forward in a steady advance. Behind every fifth Armored Rig walked a larger Shield Rig that towed a powerful shield emitter.

Lasers sparkled against the shields while slugs pinged and clunked against the armor plating on the front line.

“Artillery!” Hellena called a warning, and the line closed into tight groups. Bracing themselves, they clustered around the shield emitters and locked their arms to form a wall. The Shield Rig changed the emitter’s setting, and a repulsion field flared, deflecting the large projectiles before flame and shrapnel bathed the area.

“Medic!” A voice called further down the line.

Colby turned, seeing a man start running from the back, arms and legs lengthening and changing until an inhuman shape loped over the sands and crouched over the injured.

Recovery rigs with long chained winches dragged the damaged Rig back while the medic climbed onto it, impossible hands and arms buried in the cockpit.

“No, that’s some scary shit.”

The line moved forward again, and they made it to the minefield.

“ROLLERS!” Colby yelled.

Each of the rigs leaned down, launching a heavy metal ball from each shoulder. The things rolled ahead of the line, detonating explosives and clearing the way.

“AGAIN!” Colby yelled.

As soon as the rollers could pass straight to the wall, the Rigs advanced again.

Lines of flame began to spit from the walls as the defenders changed to close combat weapons. Even the Rigs couldn’t stand up to that. They had gaps, even if they were small ones. With flame, that is all it would take.

“Breakers! With me!” Hellena yelled.

The sealed units of the Boost Suits were not as vulnerable to flame weapons, and Colby took a moment to watch as the silver suits sprinted past the rigs, which had settled back on their legs, firing everything they had to cover the Boost Troopers.

The imposing suits arrived at the walls, each one drawing an oversized chainsaw from their backs. Yellow plasma glinted on the edge of the chains as they started to spin up while thick lines of glowing yellow spat from the mining laser mounted on each suit’s shoulder.

The lasers cut a glowing line into the armor plates, just breaking the surface, but it was enough. One after another, the chainsaws bit into the wall, the troopers leaning down on them with everything they had, suit servos screaming in protest as the plasma saws peeled open the walls.

“So damn cool, but we have work in there.”

Colby nodded, crouching and sprinting forward to leap onto the back of the nearest trooper before launching himself up again. Thanks to his nanite-boosted strength and agility, he cleared the top of the wall.

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He rolled as he landed, hearing slugs and a hiss hit the ground behind him. Spinning as he rose, Colby pulled a pistol off each of his hips. He aimed and fired his left hand as Buddy took over his right. It was a strange feeling, not controlling his own arm, but there was no doubt it worked.

As he dodged and fired, his other arm never failed to find the threat he missed and never aimed at the same target.

Five men and women died before he got to the flame unit, giving it a solid kick to spin it towards the wall. Grabbing the handles, he hopped onto the edge of the wall, leaning over the chaos below as he aimed.

“No!” Someone yelled, but it was too late.

Colby pulled the trigger and washed the top of the wall in flame.

There weren’t many screams; the fire was too hot for that.

With the first wall well and truly captured, Colby dropped down into the small space, separating it from the main compound. It was barely a hundred meters between the walls, and for a moment, Colby waited for some trap to spring.

Just as he started to relax, the sound came.

A rumbling accompanied by a heavy squeak and squeal sounded before a door opened in the main compound. An armored vehicle of some kind rolled out, the treads making the sounds he had heard. It was a squat, ugly thing with a single turret on each side. Three barrels showed from each turret.

“Nope,” Colby sprinted towards it, the front or back seeming the only safe place.

Even as he closed, the turrets began to fire, sending massive slugs slamming into the ground around him.

“Oh shit! Flame!” Buddy warned, and Colby dove with everything he had. Fire washed the space above and behind him as pain lanced down his back.

A massive crash sounded, and the heat vanished.

Looking up as he rolled madly to the side, Colby saw a Boost Suit had slammed into the side of the machine, tilting it onto one track. It was being bathed in flame at point-blank range by the turret.

Wincing with every step, Colby forced himself forward, gauntlets forming around each fist as he made it to the side of the machine and hauled himself up onto the top. A small hatch was in the center, sealed and locked. Colby ignored it and scrambled for the front, finding the narrow slit for the drivers to see through. He punched through the armored glass in three quick hits and plucked a grenade from his belt, jamming it into the gap and rolling away.

The thing bucked beneath him, and the flames cut off.

The Trooper dropped the vehicle and stepped back. The back opened, and a blistered Hellena stepped out of it, swearing constantly.

“Thank you,” Colby said, plucking an injector from his belt and jabbing it in her neck. “These are painkillers. Best I can do for now.”

“That helps, thanks,” Hellena nodded, “Nanites will sort it out in a minute.”

The large door began to open again, and Colby leaped over, rolling three more grenades under the crack with both hands and tail.

There were flashes, explosions, and screams from within.

A loud whistle caught his attention, and Colby looked up to see the man looking over the roof.

“Coming up, Boss?”

“Why not?” Colby grinned. “Do you need any more help?”

“How are you still moving?” Hellena asked, glancing at Colby’s back.

“Got a job to do,” Colby said with a smile. “And I’m promised a long soak and good food when we are done here.”

His people had cleared a path to the command bunker, and Colby stood in front of the door and knocked.

“Marshalls of the Star’s Song. Open up and surrender.” Colby called loudly. “You will be taken into custody and given due process. The word of a Marshall on it.”

He waited three minutes before the door opened, and a man approached with his hands in the air.

“We surrender! Our weapons are down, and we will not resist.”

“Come out one at a time, hands in the air,” Colby said with a smile. “And congratulations on a wise choice. Surrendering yourselves will count in your favor.”

Word spread and the defenders abandoned their positions. Some fled, and Colby had no doubt he would catch up to them in time, but most just stood where they were, hands in the air.

One of the commanders tried to stab Colby after approaching and claiming to be injured. It was not exactly a novel attempt. The other soldiers had already tried that on Colby a number of times.

Colby’s metal tail cut his throat before the man’s blade was even halfway out of his sleeve.

Hellena and her officers arrived five minutes later and were not in a great mood.

“They are prisoners of war,” Hellena said angrily when Colby stood in front of her. “Our prisoners.”

“No, they surrendered to me as a Marshall,” Colby said with a regretful smile. “As such, they are in my custody and will face civilian charges first and foremost.”

“You work for me!” Helena snapped, the burns not making her very patient.

“I work for Crush-Cha, the Chief Marshall,” Colby replied. “And to a slightly lesser extent, you as Headman of the Star’s Song and Amber Mi of the Sand’s Embrace.”

“We need their information,” Hellena said darkly. “You know what is at stake here?”

“The rule of law, as always,” Colby smiled. “It is chaos or the Marshalls. Your choice, Ma’am.”

“You insufferable shit!” Hellena snapped. “Fuck it! Fine! But you can explain it to everyone when this costs lives.”

“Just ask for the information already!”

“What?” Hellena laughed. “You think they will just volunteer it?”

“Ahem,” Colby held up one finger and turned to look at his prisoners. “Who would like to earn amnesty from prosecution by providing us with information? I warn you, providing false information is a capital offense.”

Nearly every hand went up.

Hellena glared.

“The ones who would rather die than talk already did,” Colby offered with a smug grin. “Nice, isn’t it, when things work out?”

/===<<<>>>===\

“You did what?” Nellie asked again, still not entirely sure what she was hearing was even possible.

“I brought the Forrest’s Hush fleet,” Berenice grinned over the comm line. “They initially offered a moon, but when I pointed out the volatility of land holdings in times of war, they became quite unreasonable. I took the offer of the fleet out of a regrettable flash of mercy. Quite unbecoming of a Merchant, really.”

“I hear you, I believe you, and still, I can’t believe anyone sold their entire military fleet.” Nellie chuckled.

“No, no,” Berenice said, her grin stretching into a broad smile. “They sold me their entire fleet. Military and Merchant. Some forty ships in all. I agreed to supply them with the parts for their oxygen harvesters for one full year in exchange. Also, I agreed to fixed food prices for three years.”

“Why?” Nellie asked.

“Something about giant tics,” Berenice sighed. “People become quite irrational about insects above a certain size. Paren’s Smilers gave me the idea.”

Nellie paled, even the idea of that making her feel physically sick. Suddenly, she understood the Forrest’s Hush decision very well. Anything inspired by Paren was bound to be terrifying. This sounded very close to the line between legal commerce and extortion, but it was never a very thick line anyway. She had known this would be dirty, but it was too late to second-guess that decision.

“So Forest’s Hush is effectively disarmed?” Nellie checked. “Or do we have to worry about ships moving through the area?”

“Ships moving through the area will still be a problem,” Berenice said thoughtfully. “But not necessarily a big one. I mean, we could consider the possibility of blockading the planets….”

“No,” Nellie shook her head. “Blockades are a bloody stupid idea. Best case scenario, you make an entire population capitulate, but hate you. Worst case, well,” Nellie chuckled. “Ask the Imperial Line about that.”

“Then what should my next step be?” Berenice asked. “I’m running out of ideas here.” She looked away as she kept speaking, “It’s not exactly easy to have come this far. I mean, I know it was business, but legal doesn’t make it right.”

“So far, you’ve been the stick; it’s time for some carrot,” Nellie suggested. She felt for Berenice.

“Huh?” The Merchant looked lost.

“You’ve been the tough guy at their door; now it’s time to show them the advantages of being your friend,” Nellie suggested. “It’s high time they diversified their holdings. You were only able to do this because they are entirely reliant on outside imports. Any interruption, and they are done. You could offer to help them change that.”

“I’ve made a profit on their weakiness; now I can sell them strength!” Berenice brightened considerably. “It will make the whole thing an exercise in tough love!”

“Uh, no,” Nellie tried. “It was still a shitty thing we did—”

“No, I like it,” Berenice interrupted, her eyes bright again. “Do you think they would be open to some trade with the Imperium? I bet Cheapeside would love some lumber already cut and finished. They could exchange it for some machine parts!”

“You know what?” Nellie shook her head at the irrepressible Merchant. “Whatever works.”

Nellie left the CIC in Morton’s capable hands and headed for the Bly’s Rest. There were two urgent delegations waiting to see the Queen. Another had been re-routed to Lucy, who was helping to handle all the diplomatic crap now that the other system was on board.

The moment she landed, Nellie knew something was deeply wrong. Salem had a shell-shocked look on her face as she waited outside the landing bay.

“Who died?” Nellie asked straight away.

“No one,” Salem looked even more shocked for a second before shaking her head. “It’s not a bad thing, at least, I don’t think so?”

“Okay, now I’m really worried,” Nellie said seriously. “Explain, please.”

“Have you ever aspired to be the head of a religious organization?” Salem asked weakly. “Maybe one with its own system?”

“BRIX!” The shout echoed from every speaker in the Rest, and somewhere on the other side of the station, a large man tried very hard to hide behind a very small desk.