The Guardians of Sol (16 page)

Three drop pods landed with a resounding crash. Eric was thrown from his feet. Their doors blew off from locks and hinges. The nearest one actually hit the giant, staggering the man for a moment. The Spaniard that had thus far stayed out of the festivities rushed in and hoisted up Marcus, making his way towards the AEU camp.

From one pod stepped a nondescript figure in black Castigar armor. This was a man from Demonsblood, the seventh Elite Castigar squad from the Specials battalion. From another stepped a man in gold and blue and wielding a hammer. Eric didn’t recognize the armor or the hammer over lightning bolts crest that was upon the man’s shoulder.

The last man wore armor of red, black, and gold. A fuel tank was attached on the right side of his back, a fuel line leading down that arm to a flame tipped emitter nozzle. Eric recognized this man from the eighth elite squad, Dragonflame.

The Daemonsblood man closed fast, almost faster than Eric could track, and downed the Giant in one swift blow, leaving shattered armor plates in his wake.

The man walked over to Eric and extended his hand to help the swordmaster up.

“What did we miss?”

Eric shuddered. The man’s raspy voice was like fingernails running down a chalkboard, though not nearly so high pitched.

July 23, 2289. Bastion-class battleship
Gungnir
in orbit of Venus

“Two weeks! What kind of enemy attacks in force and then disappears for two weeks?” The
Gungnir’s
captain howl. “I have better things to do! Like rooting out the pirates that have been attacking the mining centers in the asteroid belt. Not chasing phantoms.”

Every couple of days, the captain invited my fellow Specials captain Jacob and me to join him for dinner. Unfortunately, he was doing more complaining than eating tonight.

“With all due respect, sir,” I replied. “These aren’t phantoms we’re chasing. I have fought them. They killed one of my men. Just look at the recordings of what they did to Pluto or that Saturn colony. I don’t care if it takes the rest of the year, destroying these guys is worth it.”

“You don’t have a lot of experience with space battles and pirates, do you Castle? We’ve only hit our main population centers out here so far. There are at least another two dozen colony clusters just in the inner solar system we haven’t checked. The area around Pluto we scanned? That was less than half of a fraction of a percent of the whole Kuiper belt. And that’s not even getting into the asteroid belt, the Oort cloud, or the other asteroid groups scattered about. The rest of the year, Captain? Rooting out a few little ships could take a good chunk out of the next decade. You keep to the ground, and I’ll keep to space.”

“And do you have a better idea, Loj?” The Bloodwolf Captain asked, spooning more food into his mouth. “When you don’t know your enemy’s numbers or capabilities, you have to start gathering information somewhere. Otherwise you’re a sitting duck. And I would advise that you stop getting drunk when you’re on your own ship.”

“I say we pull our forces back and fortify the inner planets. With our forces concentrated like that we can react to any incursion within minutes.”

“Or we could be wiped out in one fell swoop. What if the two battle cruisers that attacked were just scouting forces? If these guys could have the resources we think they do, don’t you think that they could easily have a fleet at least as big as ours? I tell you that what we really need to do is get the other nations in on this. Between Japan, the AEU, and the Corporations we could more than double the ships available.” The intransigent captain started to say something, but Jacob cut him off. “That is the only way we could effectively defend against a threat like this. We simply need more ships. I know it is unlikely that we’ll get them, but that’s life. Get over it and enjoy your stroganoff.”

The captain started to talk again, thought better of it, and started poking his meal. I laughed inwardly, but kept it off my face. I was glad that Jacob had called the loudmouth out, and who was going to argue with a Specials captain? Jacob grunted, and started questioning me about my background. The space colony I grew up in, my family, battles I had fought. With all the hubbub of the day to day routines, managing the men, and trying to catch those vexing, evasive villains… we had never actually gotten a chance to get to know each other.

“Well, I grew up in one of the more… newish… colonies. It’d been built about twenty years before I was born. It was a fairly typical type-C wheel colony, and after both my parents disappeared because of an experimental Archimedes drive, our neighbors took us in for a little while. Although for all intents and purposes I was the one that raised my sister,” I told him. “It seemed a no-brainer to follow in my parents’ footsteps and become a Guardian. Where you from, Jake?”

His face became wistful, and he sighed. “Ireland. About… fifty years ago, before the AEU closed its borders. My parents were part of the new IRA, trying to get independence from Britain and its farce of a union with the rest of Europe. Long story short, I rebelled, joined the AEU’s army, and fought against Guardians and Samurai and Corporation Security before they finally sent my unit back to Ireland. Where before it had all been battles, glorious or otherwise, it was different this time. Civilian or IRA they didn’t care; my unit slaughtered an entire town before they were stopped – before I helped to stop them. That wasn’t the kind of thing I had signed up for; I had an attack of conscience and put a bullet into my CO’s head right before a band of IRA soldiers sprung their ambush on us. They smuggled me to Iceland and I made my way to the Forge from there. And here I am.”

“That’s pretty intense, man.”

“And every word of it true,” he laughed. “But mark my words, before I buy the farm, Ireland will be free.”

“I believe it, but all the same, I’d prefer it if the AEU dissolved on its own.”

“It would certainly make things easier.”

The ship’s captain stood up suddenly. “Excuse me gentlemen, I have a ship to run.” We made our farewells and quickly forgot the irritating man.

“But I thought that Ireland willingly joined the Union after the fourth World War. Why would the Irish want out of it now?” I asked him. History had never been my strong suit, and this seemed as good a time as any to learn something potentially useful.

“That’s true, but you forget how unstable a time it was back then. Everyone was scrambling for allies in the aftermath of Guiyang. Communist China fell; the United States of America finally fell apart. Parliament and the monarchy in Britain were overthrown by a nutjob claiming to be King Arthur returned and his ragtag. Is it any wonder that when he put forth a plan to unite and stabilize Europe that most of the leaders heard the siren call?”

“Ok, but that still doesn’t explain why Ireland wants to secede now…”

He frowned at me, “I was getting to that. The movement that brought back the IRA started about… five years after Arthur died. His son Uther – that’s our Uther’s granddad – was pretty tyrannical. You see, it’s called a ‘Union’ but the way the constitution was written up, the monarchy in England has the final say in everything, the ultimate power, if you will.

“This was happening about the same time that the Japanese emperor was taking back power in Japan and extending their stable economy into Asia, but unlike the emperors, who were taught that their ancestors chose them to
serve
their people by providing guidance, Arthur’s brood had been raised knowing that it was their right to
rule
over the masses that would otherwise just kill themselves with stupidity. That’s a huge difference Rhys, and you can see how it’s played out. The Japanese empire continues to grow, while the Pendragon’s kingdom gets stalled every time it tries to expand. The Muslims turned Mecca into a radioactive hole in the ground to keep it from the Europeans, Africa united under the Zulus because of AEU incursions, even the Soviet Remnant managed to stymie the expansion until turning to the Confederacy for help.”

“I’m still waiting for your point. If Uther was so bad, why didn’t Europe overthrow him, or vote him out?”

“They couldn’t, or wouldn’t. Think with your brain for a minute, Rhys. The constitution that Arthur drew up made him and his family kings of Europe. Do you think he would really put in a provision that would let the rest of the union to peacefully oust him? And even violence wasn’t an option because so many nations had prospered under his rule that those who were angry were vastly outmanned and outgunned, and had no choice but to continue going along with things. But Ireland has never been one to be intimidated by overwhelming force. And that, young captain, is your history lesson for today. Tomorrow we cover ancient Greece and how that led to their alliance with the Guardians today.” He finished with a wry smile. “Don’t forget to read chapter ten in your text book.”

“Ha ha, sure thing, Teach. Although I would like to hear your take on how that happened. Maybe you should have been a professor at a university.”

“I was, actually. Einstein University on Armstrong Colony at LaGrange 2,” He smiled at my surprise. “I taught history and political science. Don’t be surprised, when you’ve spent your whole life fighting, you have to take a break at some point and decide what you truly want to do with your life. Keep that in mind, Rhys. A man can only stay in this kind of life for so long before he stops being a man. You’re fine for now, but in a few years, I want you to take some leave and figure everything out, your motivations, your wants, your needs… Get some experience outside of the service.”

“I’ll try to remember that, Jacob. Hey, whose turn is it to do nighttime roll call?”

“Let’s see… I did it last night; you did it the night before… I think its Kean’s turn. Why?”

I grinned. “I think I overheard some of my boys planning a party. I’m just curious to see how Kean will handle their extra-curricular activities.”

“He’s an old hand, he’ll be fine. I’m more worried about how Frank is doing with Captains Joshua and Cari’das on the
Bereavement
.”

“What’s the story with you guys? Are you brothers, or what?”

Jacob affected a look of horror and disgust at the very thought. “That Scot, my brother? That’s some twisted mind you have there, my young friend,” then, of course, he ruined the whole effect with some more laughter. “We met at the AEU army academy. Served together for a bit after we graduated. He’s saved my life almost as many times as I’ve saved his. Long story short, I trust him more than just about anyone else… even if it did take him a bit longer than me to come over to the Guardians.”

“I… see…” I replied.

“No you don’t,” He replied, again faking his seriousness. “But that’s just fine. Think how boring everything would be if everyone understood each other.” He shuddered for effect, then stretched and yawned. “Well, Rhys, I have some paperwork to do, so I’ll just say goodnight now. You should get some rest yourself, we’ll probably be heading back to Earth any day and then you’ll be off correcting whatever problems the civilian assembly caused while we were away.”

*****

Left alone at the captain’s table, I was starting to feel a bit awkward just sitting there. If it had been later I would have followed Jacob’s advice, but I knew I’d just drive myself crazy if I went back to my room. So I wandered the halls instead. Just as I was starting to formulate the duty roster for next week, taking into account which of my boys had found their way onto my shitlist, I was almost run over.

Spicy, Squatter, Dumper, Gripe, Sandsmark, and Shot-put stopped short, big stupid grins plastered on their faces. As you can imagine, this immediately raised my guard. Spicy and Shot-put were notorious pranksters, and they often got their squadmates involved. I fixed them with the most serious and authoritative glare I could come up with on the spot.

“Alright, boys, what did you do this time? Am I going to have to explain to Colonel Kean why his men have the runs again? And John, you’re an officer; you’re supposed to be the voice of reason.”

“Well, I did tell Spicy to use talcum powder instead of the freeze-dried eggs,” Shot-put calmly replied. “That’s reasonable, right?”

I sighed, I tried to be serious, and to be a good officer, but I was still young and curious. I had to ask them what the eggs were for. Unfortunately, before they could tell me, my com started beeping. I answered to see a bedraggled and wet Colonel Kean glaring so angrily that I wondered if I was going to spontaneously combust.

“Colonel, you don’t look well, is your shower malfunctioning again?” I inquired as politely as I could. Some of the guys started to snicker, and I waved them to silence with my other hand.

“You know damn well that your men played another of their pranks! Half the deck smells like rotten eggs and the showers are all spraying a thick and thoroughly disgusting liquid that smells even worse. I’m going to have their heads this time! Your men should be arrested! I’m going to-”

“I’m sorry, Colonel. Don’t worry, I know exactly who the men responsible are and they will be punished. Expect them to help with clean up in the morning. In the meantime… call maintenance. Castle out.” I looked seriously at Shot-put.

“Hey, I never said he didn’t use the eggs.” Was his only defense.

“But what I want to know is what you thought the talcum powder would do.”

“That’s what I asked him!” Spicy chipped in. I glared at him.

Shot-put shrugged. “Didn’t they use to use talcum powder to make people itch?”

I sighed. I did a lot of sighing when I was on duty. Spicy put his arm around John and laughed. “Shotty, they use talcum powder in BABY powder. They wouldn’t do that if it made people itch. If we’d gone with your plan the only thing that would have happened would have been stopped up showerheads.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Hey, Captain!” Gripe cut in. “We’re going for some drinks. You want to join?”

“Not like I have anything better to do. The lot of you are going to help clean that mess up in the morning. And you two,” I pointed to Spicy and Shot-put. “You’re on latrine duty for the next week.”

The bar the
Gungnir
probably wouldn’t have been called a bar anywhere else. Since it was an active duty ship, there were no alcoholic beverages available. Not that that stopped anyone from having fun or calling the place a bar. This evening, the place was pretty sparsely populated; even the couches around the view screen that showed Venus and the stars only had one or two couples on them.

We seated ourselves at a table. Squatter started things off by telling a story about when his old squad had scared away their opposing numbers by convincing them they were being haunted. It more than likely wasn’t true, but it was funny. About halfway through a server finally came over to take our orders.