No Room in Space

Luyten’s Star – Planet GJ273b – Year: 2275

“You know, Sergeant, in other systems, there are factions who can work together, for mutual benefit.”

Sergeant Anghel ignored the corporal, in the hope that it might shut him up. No room for hope in space though. And besides, some hopes were only ever born to die.

“And this planet, Sergeant, it’s so big. I mean, almost three times the size of Earth? How can the ITF possibly hope to keep every other faction away?”

If it wasn’t against her current tactic of ignoring the man, Sergeant Anghel might have pointed out to the young corporal that the ITF didn’t trade in hope. It traded in metallurgy and superheavy elements and the perovskite-like structures found right here on Luyten B. And when another faction came sniffing around for a piece of that trade, like the Ubuntu Republic was doing now, well then, the ITF didn’t send in two teams of hope to set them straight. No, they sent in Anghel and they sent in Mihai. Two teams of three-man munitions experts, armed with little more than the latest Ranger V3 combat suits, and a crater’s worth of explosives.

Anghel used to love her old V2 suit, equipped with radiation sensors, LiDAR, infrared; there was nothing sneaking up on her in those. Then the Ranger V3 came along, with enough targeted energy suppression and advanced stealth to make them undetectable to almost everything but the human eye. Which made them ideal for Luyten B, a planet of rocks, and storms, and dust. Dust her V3 could navigate through as they were doing now, but also keep her hidden from any UR defence sensors. This suit, as well as the pay, was the main reason Anghel stayed working with the ITF. Even if it meant putting up with corporals like Florin.

“All I’m saying,” Florin kept saying. “Is that if the SGA finds out what we’re doing here, then they’ll never extend the Luhman Gate Chain out to Luyten. And I heard from Corporal Nic that the AESCC are on their way now too. To oversee the colonization efforts and put an end to all these so-called accidents—”

“Hey, Florin, want to try shutting up?” Stefania said.

Anghel smiled, and made a mental note to promote Private Stefania once this mission was done.

“That’s Corporal Florin, Private,” the young man bristled, “and I’m only relaying to our sergeant what every other team out here is muttering. That the ITF’s managed to keep a monopoly on Luyten B for four years, sure, but there’s no way they can keep it going.”

Anghel sighed and brought their trek to a stop. She placed her hand on Florin’s shoulder and the young man braced himself for the blow. Wouldn’t be the first beating she’d given him, but punching the fool just wasn’t getting her message through. And neither was ignoring him. Time for a new tactic.

“Corporal Florin,” Anghel said. “For the remainder of this mission you are to follow the orders of Private Stefania.”

“You can’t be serious. I won’t—!”

All three of them stopped dead as the same red light suddenly flashed up on their screens. They had two more klicks to their target, so they weren’t expecting defence units yet. Surrounded by dust, they’d been following the maps on their suits. If they’d been using their eyes, however, then maybe they would’ve seen the large shadow that was lurching towards them. Close enough now to feel the vibrations shaking up through their bones. A mech. The UB had brought a damned Battle Mech with them to protect their new settlement.

“Spread out. Take cover.”

The three rangers scattered. Magnetic interference was scrambling the readings on Anghel’s V3 in this location, which meant she couldn’t know how advanced this mech might be. She could only hope that the same interference would keep them hidden in the dust. That and her V3. Any luck and the MBM would keep moving, continue its patrol. Nothing ever stopped in space, only different speeds of thrust and orbit. Maybe the mech would follow the same rule.

Seconds stretched out, as the ground rattled and the dust went dark. Anghel prepared her rifle. Not much good against an MBM, but the fire would distract it, give Stefania time to circle behind and plant a charge. She played it out in her head, while she waited behind that rock, listening for the thumping to suddenly stop and for the mech’s missiles to suddenly launch. But, her hopes fulfilled, the shadow moved on, and Anghel praised the ITF for investing in these suits. Maybe there was some room for hope in space after all.

The rest of the trek was silent. Despite his rank as corporal, Florin hadn’t seen much combat. So that mech had shaken him. Good. All he needed now was to get shot a few times and he might get close to becoming useful. A green light flashed up on their suits once the team was in range of the mining site, and Anghel sent her message to Sergeant Mihai. Her team was in position. His team should proceed as planned. Mihai sent back his confirmation, and seconds later they heard the explosion.

All three of them turned, even though they knew they wouldn’t see it through all the dust. But they knew which direction the Ubuntu settlement was, and they could imagine the damage that was done. Mihai’s mission was the diversion. To attack the power supply of the new colonists and draw away the defences placed here at the mine. With any luck that mech would thump its way there too, but for now Anghel was satisfied to hear the whizz of the UR defence drones leaving the mine site to defend their home. As if the ITF would have any interest in attacking habitats. Destroy the colony but leave the mine? The IBS would fund the first five factions who jumped to resettle, hedging their bets against which one might succeed. But destroy the mine? Well, not much profit in sending settlers out here just for the good of their health. And the ITF would remain blameless too. Because of their public image of prioritizing commerce over everything else, why would they possibly destroy a profitable operation such as this? Well, they’d do it because they didn’t want just one mine on Luyten B, they wanted all of them. And for that, they needed no other factions here. The ITF does not share.

“Okay,” Anghel said, once her sensors confirmed that the site was clear. “Sixty seconds to set the charges, another sixty to make the rendezvous. We blow in five. Move out.”

Private Stefania and Corporal Florin gave a quick salute and then went about their work. Anghel double-timed it to her own targets and attached the explosives without incident. She was the first one back to the rendezvous, with Stefania not far behind. They waited in silence for Florin, but sixty seconds passed and there was still no sign. Anghel was halfway through finding the right curse for the man when the corporal came running up.

“Twenty seconds over, Corporal, not good enough!” Anghel spared enough time for a scowl before she commenced the countdown and turned to run.

“Sergeant, wait!” Florin cried after her. “We can’t detonate!”

Anghel halted. “Why? What happened? Did they place shielding around the reactor?” If the fusion generator didn’t blow, they wouldn’t do enough damage to destroy the entire site. She knew she should’ve given that target to Stefania. She knew it!

 “No, it’s not that. But there are civilians here. At least four. One scientist, and three engineers. It was supposed to be unmanned!”

For a moment, just for a moment, Anghel thought about lifting her gauss rifle to give Florin a literal bleeding heart. There’d be too many questions though. With a precise record on their V3s of the shots fired as well as her intended target. A downside of the advanced tech: it was much harder to scrub.

“The mission remains the same. The countdown is set. Move out!”

“No. I’m sorry, Sergeant, but no.”

Anghel clenched her fists. Looked at the countdown. Had no option but to stop it.

“Corporal Florin… Are you disobeying an order from your sergeant?”

The young man faltered for a moment at what that would mean, but recovered bravely and stood up straight. “I won’t murder civilians.”

Sergeant Anghel closed her eyes, then hung her head. “Alright, Corporal. I can give you three minutes.”

“Three minutes?”

“To get back to the mining site and clear those engineers. Then I start the countdown. Understood?”

“Yes, Sergeant!” The corporal saluted sharply. “And ... thank you!”

Anghel just shook her head as the corporal sprinted back to the mines. The dust around them cleared for a moment, allowing her to meet Stephania’s eyes.

“Private Stephania… You are familiar with the term collateral damage, are you not?”

“You mean the civilians at the site? Of course. They know the dangers of coming out this far. This is the Cold Star War, Sergeant, anyone who doesn’t understand that should’ve stayed on Sol.”

“That’s good, Private. But the collateral damage I was referring to … wasn’t the civilians.”

It took her a moment, but Stefania was smart.

“I understand, Sergeant, but it’s Corporal now, not Private. Isn’t that correct?”

Anghel grinned. “That is correct.”

She reset the countdown to sixty seconds and activated it. It would be tight, but they should be able to make it clear in time. They started running.

“We’re going to feel this explosion, aren’t we, Sergeant?”

“Yes, Corporal. But not as much as Florin will…”

The two women laughed. Grim, sure. Heartless, maybe. But there was no room for bleeding hearts in space.