Chapter 11

Subject: Admiral Nilson

Despite winning the battle for Oasis III, the situation was untenable. The alien ships had managed to fire on the planet, although said fire seemed largely ineffective. The beams didn’t hit anything important, although they did start a few large fires. The bizarre spike-projectiles they launched all broke apart in the atmosphere of the planet; sensors on the surface confirmed that the projectiles fell apart into a cloud of tiny particles. Nothing who’s impact would threaten folks on the ground. 

The problems started when Nilson considered the next step. They’d killed almost all the ships, but one was still out there. It had completely disappeared off sensors, and with that beam weapon, it could ambush and kill any ship sent out after it. So, to chase it down, Nilson would have to send the whole surviving ship formation. But, that would leave the planet undefended. One shot from the alien beam weapon would turn New Carthage into glass and bad memories. And with only one surviving frigate and the e-war cruiser lacking power, there was no way they’d be able to pull off another defense without the Bastion and her destroyer escort.

To add to that, the stricken cruiser that they’d left behind around Oasis V, the Rahvan, was running on battery power. Half her crew was still alive on a ship with a ticking clock. Rescue would certainly be possible, but even half a cruiser’s crew would tax the life support systems of any of Nilson’s ships to the point that they’d have to either send the whole formation, or make multiple runs. And, if a ship went solo to make those runs, they’d be an easy target for the Adversary. And considering the Rahvan is three-days away at full burn, not including deceleration, the Bastion would’t be able to capitalize on the Adversary showing itself to kill the would-be rescue ship. It would simply take too long to get there, and the damn thing could hide again just as it’s doing now. 

The safest move, and the one Nilson was cursing himself for choosing, was to put his ships in high orbit around Oasis III and wait. Protecting them and the planet, while sacrificing the Rahvan and allowing the Adversary free reign over the rest of the system. He’d made the decision, and his crew accepted it without question. Everyone was traumatized from the last week of battle, and Nilson suspected the crew was happy that he’d made the hard choice for them.

In his twenty-four years of fleet service, Nilson hadn’t ever experienced a week like this. Not even close. He doubted any human spacer had, except, of course the Second Fleet’s famed fleet admiral. Across known space, mankind had fought every alien civilization to a standstill at every turn. It had been almost a hundred years since the Great Incursion that led to the formation of the United Human Dominion, and the military build up that since had ensured peace. Only minor border skirmishes, security actions, and the occasional separatist movement kept the fleet in practice. Actual warfare was largely a thing of the past.

Nilson could barely eat, and his sleep was plagued by nightmares of Chief Engineer Pruitt, covered in blood and soot and crying while he begged Nilson to save his crew, to not abandon him. His waking moments were filled with guilt as he ran through the battles over and over again. Seven of his twelve ships destroyed. One on life support and dying slowly. Thousands of spacers lost to the void. 

He’d put the planet on lockdown, securing the heavy lift shuttles that could make the space-to-surface trip safely away to their docking points aboard the station. He’d also reassigned Davis to a command staff role— Liaison Officer. He’d be in charge of liaising with the planetary administrator, an absolutely unenviable job, but one that Davis himself had asked for. Estevez was his new XO, with Sahr in line for spot three. 

Personnel reassignments and handing out commendations were all busy work to kill time and calm nerves. He couldn’t even busy himself by examining the wreckage from the dead Adversary ships; the damnable things started disintegrating as soon as they were derelict. Estevez suspected it was intentional, to avoid giving information to their enemy. All they could do was wait. Wait and hope the fleet back home decided the Oasis system was worth recovering. Hoping a fleet would tear out of rift space and save the Rahvan, and send a nuke into the bridge of the last Adversary ship. If it had a bridge.

After days of lingering in orbit, stewing in anger, doubt, and self-loathing, hope came back to Nilson in the most unexpected way. 

“Admiral Nilson to the bridge, Admiral Nilson to the bridge,” the ship’s PA announced. Nilson was in the mess pouring himself another cup of coffee from the seemingly perpetual supply the ship was loaded with. It was the good stuff too. Nilson topped off his mug and rushed onto the bridge. Much to his surprise, everyone was smiling.

“Admiral!” Estevez was alive with excitement, “jump signatures detected in the outer system; they’re broadcasting as UHDN ships!”

Holy shit, Nilson thought. “Estevez, this is way too soon for a gate builder ship from the central systems to have made it.” He looked at the combat information display, three ships. “And three ships is not a fleet. Who are they and where’d they come from?”

“It was a warp jump, and they-“, Estevez looked at her display just as the comms officer spoke up. 

“Admiral! Incoming tight beam. It’s coming from near one of Oasis III’s moons, sir,” the comms officer seemed confused, like he distrusted the information the ship was feeding him. “There’s no ship on the scope from where the tight beam is originating from. Should I accept?”

Nilson and Estevez looked at each other. Estevez’s excitement withered into a look of concern. Nilson hovered his finger over the ‘battle stations alarm’ button. “Answer it, put it up on the main display.”

The holographic display of the system disappeared and was replaced by an image of a man. A man with a beard. Wearing a green sweater. He wore a lopsided grin. He was clearly not a fleet officer. 

“Howdy, Admiral” The man spoke, his accent a quaint drawl that reminded Nilson of frontier adventure streams. “I’m Agent Jim Crawford of the Systems Intelligence Division, Special Investigations Unit. Sorry for sneaking up on you, but we got the distress call from the rift gate control station before they nuked themselves and I figured it’d be wise to keep a low profile until I got an eye on the situation.” 

Nilson narrowed his eyes and looked to Estevez. A feral grin played across her face. She looked up and gave him a thumbs up, apparently the universal symbol of ‘this checks out’. Nilson looked back to the display. 

“Rear Admiral Nilson, Oasis Security Flotilla. We’re more like a squadron now. We’ve been attacked by the alien ships that came out of the rift, and they did a number on us. We’ll send over a full sensor package recounting of the last few weeks for you to review. Are those three ships that just jumped in with you, Agent Crawford?”

“Call me Jim, Admiral. I’m not military and it’s always weird when military folks call me by a title. Yeah, those ships are with me. I was out and about a few systems over doing some uh, ‘looking around’, we’ll say. Joint ops with the fleet. Technically, Senior Captain Aleki Anae is in charge of the battlegroup but he’s keeping his head down too. We work together, so I volunteered to give you a shout while he’s on the prowl. How many alien ships are left, Admiral?”

“One’s left, Jim. One out of eight. We don’t know where it is, all we know is it ran off after getting it’s ass kicked around Oasis III. Sensors pegged it heading counterspinward down the well, but we lost track of it when it went behind one of the planet’s moons and it’s gravimetric signature is too weak to reliably track. I’ll send that over too.”

“Thanks for that Admiral!” Jim said jovially, “listen, most of what I get up to is classified. Need-to-know. Well, I’m looking at the situation here and I figure there’s at least a few things that you’re in the need to know. And, I think the situation is a little extreme, so I’m gonna flex my authority a bit here.” Jim took a deep breath. Nilson braced himself for whatever that meant. 

“Because of the alien incursion and the direct threat to a human colony, including the damage rendered to a habitable planet by alien forces, I’m declaring an emergency in this system,” Jim’s eyes glazed over slightly, as if he was reading from a script or a law book. He continued, “as the senior civilian authority in this system, and by virtue of an alien incursion presenting as a threat to intersystem commerce, I’ll be asserting control over all assets in this system, fleet and otherwise. Nilson, you work for me now, but it ain’t a big deal. I’m gonna be giving you tools to go kill aliens so it ought make you happy.”

“Threat to intersystem commerce?” Nilson asked. He had a lot of questions, but the justification for seizing control of fleet ships away from a fleet admiral seemed… well, bizarre.

“Yeah well, aliens coming in and killing everybody would sure put a damper on intersystem commerce around here now wouldn’t it?” Jim winked; Nilson winced. “Trust me Nilson, I’ve got four experimental stealth destroyers prowling the system right now looking for your demon ship. Work with me here and we’ll get things back on track real quick, together as a team.”

Nilson briefed a glance to Estevez at the mention of more stealth ships in the system. Estevez looked awestruck. She glanced between the sensor operator and Nilson, and shrugged to indicate she had no idea there were more ships in the system. 

“Alright Jim, I’ll admit you’ve caught me in a time of need and I’m grateful to have the assistance. If you can, I’d ask that you send those three big ships on the edge of the system downwell. I have a stricken cruiser that has surviving crew that need rescue. It’s urgent.” Nilson wasn’t below begging at this point, but he knew it was an easy show of good faith, and the agent had to bite on it. 

“That’s their first stop Nilson, second stop is in formation with your flagship.” Jim grinned at that. It made Nilson uncomfortable, like the agent was a salesman trying to pull some tactic to build rapport. He didn’t trust the guy yet, but by all accounts his story checked out. The Bastion’s sensor operator slid a handwritten note on the podium at Nilson’s command terminal. 

“Alright Jim. My sensor operator is indicating that since you are apparently totally invisible to our systems, we can’t actually send you any information outside of the tight beam that you initiated to start this call. So, I hope you have some sort of secret means of sending sensor data over.”

Jim’s smile hadn’t waned, instead it grew stronger at the utterance of the word ‘secret’. “Oh I’ve got secrets Nilson,” Jim purred, “I’ll turn the active sensors and IFF transponders and all that on so you can see me. Once we’ve had a chance to digest your sensor data I’ll hit you back with a plan. Keep an eye on your private messages too, I get kinda busy over here and can’t always do a big formal call in front of everyone, if you know what I mean.” Nilson knew what he meant. It meant, ‘I’d love to tell you secret shit but I’m on the bridge display in front of everyone and they aren’t allowed to know’. 

“Understood, Agent. I’ll wait to hear back from you.” Nilson signed off and dropped the call. “Comms send a message to Chief Engineer Pruitt at once, let him know rescue is coming.”

“Aye admiral,” the comms officer replied. 

“Estevez, you already know this but please send over everything on the Adversary and our actions since the incursion started. But, wait until that ship confirms it’s identity and check it against the records,” Nilson knew as soon as he added the second part that it was a mistake to say it aloud. He didn’t need his crew knowing that he doubted the agent. But, he had to do his due diligence. Estevez nodded and got to work. Nilson turned back to his display to see the new ships and their projected path. The SIUS Wraith, Jim’s ship, Nilson supposed, had shared an intent to navigate down into formation alongside the Bastion. The formation of three ships in the outer system, shown as two modern battlecruisers and a ‘surface combat support ship’, named the UHDN Vengeance of Tethys, had already updated their navigation tracks and shared an intent to burn downwell towards the Rahvan. Already. 

“Estevez, are you seeing that those ships in the outer system have already updated navigation? Do you think they have their own FTL comms system?” Nilson asked, excited by the prospect. 

“I do, Admiral. It would make sense that a fleet of this composition and nature would have their own, separate SAECOM system, especially for classified operations. Running everything through a public relay is a security risk.” Estevez paused briefly before adding, “the ship name checks out. The Wraith is a known SIU stealth frigate, but it didn’t show up on the registry until the IFF tagged it. Interesting. Same as the Vengeance of Tethys. It’s an experimental ship, I’d wager. No idea what it’s capable of, but it’s huge. Easily twice the size of the battlecruisers.” 

Nilson nodded at Estevez and typed an excited text message to Jim asking to be relayed to the new formation’s sensors. FTL communications would be huge. Jim’s reply came quick. 

I’ll do ya one better.

Chapter 12

Subject: Maddy

The security and science team made fantastic time getting back to the shuttle landing zone. Wildlife was everywhere and they were clearly spooked. Nothing dared linger within the team’s line of sight long enough to incur their wrath. The shuttle met them at the LZ right on time and lingered just long enough for the team to file in and strap their equipment down. The pilot didn’t kept silent as he sent the shuttle on a sharp bank and rocketed full speed back towards New Carthage. A column of smoke as wide as a mountain range rose up in the distance behind them as they flew home. The security team was silent, but the science team talked incessantly, speculating on the nature of the orbital calamity that befell the planet. 

The shuttle avoided flying over much of the city, but from what Maddy could see, things were bad. Crowds gathered around police checkpoints. There wasn’t fighting, but there was certainly civil unrest. Locking things down is probably a good idea.

The shuttle pulled off a combat drop onto the roof of the station, hovering just above the roof and allowing the team to hop down and unload equipment. The roof was definitely not designed to support the weight of the light shuttle, but a few thousand kilos of people and equipment wouldn’t be a problem. Maddy made a mental note, this is quite the option in a pinch. She keyed up the group comms channel again, “alright team, clearly something is up beyond our pay grade. Sergeant Blitz and I are calling a lockdown. No leaving the station until we get an idea what’s going on. I’m going to suggest beefing up the watch rotation as well, so expect to be pulling nights.” Gremlin groaned at that. Dad and Felix nodded. Maddy changed the comms channel to a private one with Liselle. 

“I’ll call you later?” Maddy asked. 

“Please,” Liselle replied quietly. 

Maddy’s perspective on things had changed over the course of the last op. From Smoker terrorizing the animals, to the planet coming under attack or being hit by meteors, or whatever, to Team Two coming together under her leadership to actually demonstrate a decent level of competence. Maddy’s mindset shifted, switching from a reserved complacency to a sharp focus. She was working now, all the time. Fleet Marine Maddy was active, and paying attention. 

The coming days were painful; ‘hurry up and wait’ in all it’s glory. No official news came, at all. Just officially worded notices declaring arrests for violating new company rules. Orbital shuttles were locked down on the station. Everyone had to be off the streets at night without a valid work pass. Animals were rounded up and shoved into their corner of town; ‘The Exhibit’, as the locals called it. Strict rationing had gone into effect for the local population, but that didn’t bother the science or security team. They had a huge stockpile of spares and foodstuffs in the station storeroom. 

Maddy spent the time working out, standing watch, getting to know her team, and flirting with Liselle. She wasn’t sure Liselle knew she was flirting with her. Part of her was sad about that, but the better part knew that plausible deniability for that sort of misconduct was probably a good move. 

“Why does everyone have dumbass nicknames except for you?” Maddy had asked Felix.

“Felix IS my dumbass nickname,” Felix replied, smiling his toothy smile. 

“Felix is a regular name,” Maddy knew his actual name from the timecards she was apparently in charge of submitting. It wasn’t Felix, but still. 

“Alright, well, its a story,” Felix said. Maddy gestured ‘go on’ with a circular hand motion.

“Well, when I first got to NC we used to watch this stream all the time. It was called RaceCourse. You know that one?” Felix asked. Maddy shook her head, she hadn’t heard of it. “Yeah, well. It was a stupid ass show, real cheesy. They had teams of like, four guys and they had to build carts to get a bigass totem across the finish line. Way too heavy to carry, so they had to get real creative building, and the course was full of traps and shit. The announcer was super annoying too, he’d shout ‘another one dowwwwn!’ when the carts would crash. Anyway, I started saying it because it made everyone laugh. I’d say it when I finished a chore, when I dumped a mag on missions, you know, whenever.”

“The announcer’s name was Felix, wasn’t it?” Maddy asked. But she already knew. She liked the kid. Felix was one of the very few on the team that actually seemed like he wanted to do good. He was always eager to do what Maddy ordered, and never questioned her. Felix was reliable, and a good kid. He would have made a good marine. 

Maddy also kept a close eye on Team One. Especially Chief. Her suspicion seemed to grow daily. Blitz was never far away from him, and Chief’s behavior continued to grow more and more bizarre. He’d started constantly calling whoever was standing watch with ‘suspicious’ sightings from the camera feeds, but there was almost never anything actually happening when he called stuff in. He also wouldn’t let anyone touch the cameras or access the feeds. Despite the lockdown, Maddy was certain she’d seen members of Team One sneaking in and out when other Team One officers were on watch. They were up to something, covering each other, and concealing it. Maddy didn’t know what, but it bothered her. 

On day three of lockdown, Maddy decided the cabin fever and bizarre paranoia of Chief and his goons was enough. She called Dad and Felix on the comms, asking them to gear up and meet her at the truck. 

“We going on a mission?” Felix asked. 

“Sort of, I’ll explain on the way. Light armor only. No primaries, just the shotguns in the truck,” Maddy had asked. They met her at the truck, their light armor and sidearms making them look official, like cops. “Dad, you’re driving. Get us to the police station.” Dad didn’t question it. The team piled in, and the truck pulled out of the station. The air outside was filled with smoke and a light dusting of ash rained down. The horizon was dark, despite it being afternoon still. The result of the uncontrolled wildfires.

“Okay we’re on the way, explain now,” Felix stared at her, expectantly. Even though he was in the back seat, Maddy could feel his eyes burning into her head. 

“So, when’s the last time y’all talked to the cops?” Maddy looked at Dad and Felix in turn. 

“Not like.. ever?” Felix responded hesitantly. 

Dad sighed, thought, and then spoke, “we are supposed to have a mutual aid agreement with them. The deal was if they get in the shit we’ll come help, and if we get in the shit out there, outside the barrier, the breach control teams will come help us.”

“Breach control teams?” Maddy hadn’t heard of them.

“Yeah like the tactical arm of the cops, they’re ISD troops. Probably the only real professionals left out of the whole colony. They shoot anything that gets past the barrier, or at least thats the idea. Guess they could do anything. They have a sweet gunship.”

“Listen, I trust you two as much as anyone on this assignment,” Maddy figured flattery would help, but it didn’t hurt that it was true. “We don’t know what the fuck is going on in orbit, the fires are getting worse, and the town is a shit show. I figured it’d be smart of us to try to get some information, see if we can ingratiate ourselves with the locals, make ourselves useful, and get some perspective in the process.”

The truck pulled up to the first checkpoint. Two ISD police officers were flanking either side of a row of anti-vehicle bollards, the kind that live recessed in the road and pop up when the signal is given. “I’ll talk,” Maddy said. 

One officer walked up to the passenger side. Maddy rolled her window down. 

“What do you want?” The officer stated flatly. No telling if he recognized the vehicle or uniforms. 

“SAS security forces,” Maddy flashed her badge, “I’m Security Sergeant Turner. We’re looking for the nearest lieutenant or captain.” Maddy stumbled on those last words, she actually had no idea who they were looking for. Just a cop in charge of the other cops. 

“Why?” The cop asked with a tone of incredulity.

“Look, we are federal law enforcement and we need information and want to help. We’re supposed to be helping each other.” 

The cop looked at her for a minute, grinding his teeth. Then, he spoke, “Detective Ward is the watch commander for this district. She’s up the road near the south end of the spaceport, you’ll see a tactical vehicle at a checkpoint, she’ll be around there. Stay away from the admin and headquarters district. There’s a ‘round the clock protest that’s keeping them busy.” 

And with that, the officer turned and walked back to his post. The bollards dropped, and Dad hit the accelerator. Maddy broke the silence, “kind of a dick huh?”

“Yeah, well. We haven’t been living up to our end of things, so…,” Dad responded. He was a lot more talkative in small groups it seemed. Maddy decided to seize the opportunity.

“So, what got you to join up with the team?” She asked, looking at Dad. 

He looked at her with a wild expression, like she’d crossed some unspoken boundary. He settled, then spoke, “we kind of have a rule not to talk about that sort of shit, it pisses everyone off.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to hit a soft spot,” Maddy put her hands up in a placating gesture. Dad pulled the truck over. 

“Actually, no. You should know.” He took a deep breath, preparing himself,  “my wife got sick, like you. I was in the triple-S as a load master for the an air wing, retired just under a year before she got sick. The VA told me that she’d need cybernetics to keep her from dying, and the only contract they got for a retired conscript like me was running security on a shitty little planet called Oasis III. So, I didn’t really have a choice. I sign on the dotted line or I watch her die.”

“Fuck, I’m sorry man,” Maddy replied. She hadn’t known anything about his backstory, much less that he was in the conscript corps. The Triple-S is slang for the Systems Security Section, a paramilitary force that maintains order in the frontier systems. Not a choice job by any stretch, and definitely the type of thing you get stuck with when you don’t qualify for better service. 

“Yeah so, ten year contract. No pay, just a living stipend that gets paid out to SAS for providing housing. Wife gets to live and work and take care of the kids as a single mom while I-,” Dad was turning red, getting angry. His contract sucked, but Maddy’s was only slightly better. He flexed his jaw for a few seconds before sighing, “Felix, tell her about your contract.”

They both turned to look at Felix. He shrank under their gaze, a look of immense shame and guilt across his face. 

“It’s alright,” Maddy tried to reassure him. “I wont judge. We all had to sacrifice something.”

“Nah, they paid me.” He squeaked. 

“What do you mean?” Maddy was confused. Dad had a look of righteous anger. 

“They paid me. I went to enlist in the fleet, but I kept failing the test. The recruiter gave me a contract for the science section instead of fleet, 10 year contract with an enlistment bonus, like a whole extra year pay up front. They dropped me here after academy.”

“What the fuck,” Maddy was shocked. Dad laughed and started driving. How is it she had to take a pay cut and sign on for ten more years to get the job, when they paid Felix a bonus? “I got sick FROM THE MARINES! We had a ship’s reactor overload in the docks, I got irradiated to fuck and had to get the medical nanite system to keep from dying. They made me pay for it and sign on for another for-fucking-ever, and they paid you?! Dad had to abandon his family and sign an indenture contract even though he’s a veteran? And they paid you a fucking bonus?”

Dad’s laugh left, but his smile stayed. It wasn’t a happy smile, more like smug satisfaction from being proven right. Or maybe that mixed with sympathy. “This is why we don’t talk about it Sergeant. Everyone’s stories are different. Some are like ours and some are like Felix’s. It seems like the Dominion took what they could when they could. Some were sent here as punishment, some had to pay to come, and others were paid out. There’s no rhyme or reason. By the way, those nanite systems that we traded our fucking lives for,” Dad flashed a conspiratorial stink eye, “they have a cybernetic clinic up by the hospital that is loaded with thousands of them, collecting dust. There’s a surplus of them right here. They’re less than worthless. They’re a liability.”

Maddy ground her teeth. She’d been screwed over by the marines in a way that was entirely untenable. She turned her gaze out the window as the truck passed a shanty town of broken buildings and groups of desperate colonists, abandoned and left in the dark as their planet literally burned. The whole damn planet has been screwed over. They rode in silence, occasionally getting waved through checkpoints. The crowds of angry colonists grew more numerous as they neared the city center. They navigated through and around the crowds until a police tactical vehicle came into view, parked in an intersection. A half-dozen cops in riot gear took up posts around the vehicle. Colonists walked by, not paying heed to the riot cops. They were heading downtown, Maddy guessed. 

The truck rolled to a stop and Maddy jumped out, still pissed from the revelation Dad and Felix had dropped on her. She walked up to the nearest cop, all of her enthusiasm for making nice having evaporated on the ride over. She made a conscious effort to compartmentalize the anger.

“I’m looking for Detective Ward,” she said, flashing her badge. The cop nodded and pointed to a slim female cop wearing a white uniform shirt under her riot gear. Maddy nodded thank you and approached the cop, Dad staying behind to watch the truck and Felix on her tail. 

“You must be Detective Ward,” Maddy said, extending her hand for a handshake. Ward didn’t take it.

“You’re with the science group? You must want something, huh?” Ward replied. Maddy put her hand down. Not hurt, but angry that the whole system here was so fucked up. Chief needs to be removed. Everyone hates us. 

“Opposite, actually. I’m new to the group, on loan from the fleet marine corps. I’m in charge of expeditionary missions beyond the barrier and liaising with the locals.”

“So you’re the new boss then?” Detective Ward asked. 

“I also do payroll and order equipment and everything else so I’m sure it looks that way from the outside, but no. I’m a sergeant. I’m just trying to repair damage from the misses the team before me has made.” 

Ward smiled at the comment and removed her helmet, cradling it under her left arm. She had short blonde hair and a thin face. She wasn’t as cute as Liselle, but she also wasn’t Maddy’s coworker. She extended her hand, Maddy took it and shook. 

“Well then, sorry about the shitty introduction. I’m Detective Ward. My sense of humor is fucked up from the last few days, I’m sure you understand,” Ward said. 

“Security Sergeant Turner; you can call me Maddy. We’ve been lying low since the uh, ‘event’.” After three days Maddy still wasn’t sure what to call it. Was it an attack? Did the orbital station break apart and fall through the atmosphere? Who knows. 

“Yeah, ‘the event’. You know we still don’t know what that was? If you came down here expecting answers you’re shit out of luck. Our admin is about as useful as your Chief,” there was an intensity about her last statement. She looked at Maddy, appraisingly. 

Maddy replied, “yeah, our leadership has some difficulties.” She didn’t want to go straight into name-calling and gossip. Unprofessional. Keeping it vague is a better move. “I don’t know what happened before me, but I’m here for forever now, and I want to make things better.”

The detective smiled, “okay Maddy. You’re a marine so I’ll cut you some slack and give you a chance. You really want to help? Now is actually a good time to dive in. I’ve got one for you right now, as it so happens.” The detective pulled out a smart link device and swiped on the display. Maddy did the same. The text “New Contact Card: Elizabeth Ward. Accept?” Crossed the display. Fuck yeah, Maddy thought and pressed accept. 

“So for the last day and a half we’ve been getting missing persons reports. Well, missing children.” Detective Warden started.

“Children? I guess I haven’t noticed until now but I haven’t seen a kid since I got here,” the realization coming to Maddy as she said it. It was true, she hadn’t noticed the lack of kids but now that she thought about it, it seemed weird.

“Yeah, well, there’s a lot of reasons to not have any in this shithole, but it still happens. Kids aren’t allowed in the city proper because they spread disease, so families tend to shack up in little communities on the outskirts. There’s actually several outside the barrier, if you can believe that.” Detective Ward paused to allow Maddy to finish typing notes into her smart link.

“There’s a larger village outside of the barrier that’s renounced their employment contracts. Technically, we should be throwing them in jail, but, you know. It’s a fine balance out here.” Detective Ward paused briefly, taking a breath, then continued, “They have five missing children. All gone last night. You know it’s bad because they called us for help. Technically, I’m not supposed to render aid, and practically I cant. There are more cases closer and my caseload is actually more than I can physically do, not even counting the temporary assignment supervising the riot forces.”

“Yeah, makes sense for us to look into it. We’re federal and impartial to ISD business. Why do you think there’s kids going missing? That’s bizarre.” Maddy was fully engaged in the conversation. The anger from earlier was gone in full. 

“I don’t know. No comms out of the system, full planetary lockdown. Beams from space burning the forests. Kids going missing. Riots in the streets. Maybe it’s the end times?” The detective shrugged, “maybe your science team found something? Alien defenses on the planet? Activated it by mistake?”

Maddy shook her head no. But, given the chaos, Maddy knew bringing them into the fold would be the smart move. They might have perspective that the security team lacked, and maybe they’d spot something Maddy missed. Even if they contributed nothing at all, Maddy was sure they’d appreciate being consulted at the very least. 

“Okay detective, you’ve got a deal. We’ll look into it and let you know what we find out,” Maddy said, relieved to have found an in that brought both the locals and the science team together. She might not be the actual manager for the security team, but she could do a lot of good finding opportunities like this. 

Chapter 13

Subject: Agent Jim Crawford

Jim sat in the command deck on the Wraith, chewing a toothpick; watching the ship’s crew working diligently to parse through he sensor data sent over by the Bastion. The records the Bastion’s intel officer, Estevez, Jim noted, were fantastic. She’d done a hell of a job watching the Adversary and turning her observations into tactical data. Jim was gonna poach her for his crew, no doubt. Jim spit the worn toothpick into an empty cup and it replaced it with a fresh one. 

Many things about the sensor data were troubling. The alien ships, dubbed the “Adversary”, came out of the rift. The rift gate system was humanity’s first solution overcoming the universal constant, the speed of light. The gates opened up an extra-dimensional portal to a place where the rules are different. In this case, a place where space was physically smaller than real space. 

Human society was built around the rift gates. It would be simply impossible for the sprawl of the Dominion to work if the gates were suddenly shut down. Warp jumps at 30 light years a piece was simply too slow for the vastness of space and the hundreds of Dominion systems, and the Alcubierre system was far too unreliable and inaccurate over long distances.

The public transit rift lane that led to the Oasis system is one of the oldest and most trusted rift lanes. It’s thought to be a pocket dimension, as opposed to a dimension that mirrored our own. There was very little known mass there, and everything was greatly compressed. Traveling a kilometer in the rift space could translate to some untold thousands of kilometers in real space. 

Dozens of dimensions had been evaluated to be safe for humans, but only a few had conditions favorable for FTL travel. Rift travel research was notoriously dangerous, every new domain a roll of the dice. You could just as easily open a door to a domain full of cotton candy and unicorns as you could open a door to hell. 

The weird-shit in other dimensions threatening humans was actually perfectly in Jim’s wheelhouse. It was his main job. The Special Investigations Unit had a front facing responsibility to stop pirates and known alien civilizations from messing with rift travel; and that they did. But the known threats were only the tip of the iceberg. 

“So, Wraith, let me just think out loud for a minute and you let me know if I missed anything,” Jim said, speaking to the ship’s AI. It was tradition to name the AI after the ship. 

“I think that would be a helpful exercise, Jim,” the AI responded, it’s voice perfectly gender-ambiguous and neutral. He’d tried to order it to be more fun, but this was as best he could get out of the thing. 

“Alright great, all of you,” Jim spoke up, inviting the rest of the ship’s staff to participate, “let me know if I miss anything. Group discussion before I start saying shit to the locals.” A round of ‘yes sir’s’ and ‘aye sir’s’ greeting him. Fleet tradition was to be formal when talking to civilian leadership. It was ingrained, you couldn’t stop it. 

“So the Adversary; we’re calling it that by the way. It sounds fucking scary and I like it. Anyway, they come out of the gate one at a time; all at exactly the same speed, at exactly the same interval.” Jim decided to start the recounting at the beginning, adding in what they now knew. 

“Correct, well below the safe mass transit threshold for the rift gate, however the interval at which they entered was the interval at which gamma radiation emitted by the gate would have returned to baseline following the previous transit,” Wraith added, patterns in the data only an AI would find that quickly. 

“So, that means the damn things don’t know how many ships they could push through at once and they didn’t want to test their luck and break the gate. They also waited until they had a force large enough to crush the defenders on the other side before attacking.”

“That is my belief as well. I would like to add, I believe that they did not understand what human defenders were capable of when they initiated the attack. They destroyed navigation buoys and one of the Adversary ships was killed by a railgun strike. Later engagements show that the Adversary was able to quickly adapt to the tactics utilized by Rear Admiral Nilson and his flotilla, however the tactics worked astonishingly well until the Adversary developed countermeasures.” Wraith sounded kind of excited, Jim thought. That’s good, developing a bit of personality would make it better to interact with. 

“Yeah, I was gonna get to that. Nilson used asymmetrical tactics and they were extremely effective. Those ships should have wiped the floor with this group of ships commanded by any regular admiral, but the way Nilson engaged them was inventive. It worked. But, it doesn’t look like the same trick works twice.” Jim was genuinely impressed. Nilson didn’t even have a proper flagship. Even though his losses were substantial, he’d won every engagement he’d been involved in. 

“Let’s back up a hair Wraith, just confirm for me that we don’t have any weird alien ships going INTO any of our gates outside of this system,” Jim knew the answer but the inquiry had to be documented. He had full transit logs for every rift gate updated continuously through SAECOM, up until they’d lost connection when the local gate self destructed. 

“Correct. All transits into and out of rift space are accounted for. The Adversary ship’s passing through the portal had a unique signature as well, and there is no other documented transit which matches this signature,” Wraith confirmed. 

“So that means one of two things. Either the Adversary has their own means of accessing our rift lanes OR, they live in rift space.” Jim’s toothpick was destroyed. He spat it out and grabbed another. 

“Both are unlikely,” Wraith responded. 

“Why, do you have another option?” Jim scooted up on his seat slightly, excited to hear that the AI had uncovered something he hadn’t yet known. 

“Negative,” Wraith stated flatly. Goddamn thing, Jim thought. 

“Well fifty-fifty odds it is, one of them happened. Have we ever seen ships like these before? Or anything close?” Jim scanned the room. Everyone shook their heads no. 

“Hull scans, weapons, and propulsion are all unique as are gravimetric, radar, and hyperspectral signatures. There is no known human or alien ship which matches any of the criteria used to identify ships.” Wraith was convinced these were new aliens. Jim agreed. 

“Alright, and we have no wreckage to look at. Here’s something that’s bothering me and I want insight on. When those Adversary ships were fighting above Oasis III, and they had a break from the jamming, the immediately launched those spikes at the planet. They didn’t even clear the threats to themselves; they focuses on launching those things like that’s what they came here to do. Wraith, what the fuck were those?” Jim had suspicions, but he wasn’t sure. 

“The ‘spikes’ as you call them, appeared to be ballistic impactors fired through a gravimetric accelerator. The Adversary craft fired seven spikes each for a total of fourteen impactors. All fourteen were spaced evenly to create a ring that centered over New Carthage, the primary human colony on the planet. Each impactor dissolved in the troposphere at a consistent altitude of fifteen kilometers above ground level. There was no known damage to infrastructure or human life.” Wraith’s excitement seemed to be momentary. Maybe Jim had imagined it. 

“It wouldn’t be out of character for the bastards to screw something up on their first try… wait. You said 15km above ground level? Not sea level?”

“Correct. When terrain is accounted for, each spike broke apart at exactly fifteen thousand four hundred and twelve meters above the terrain below it. Terrain in the area varied several kilometers in height,” Wraith said. 

Jim’s eye twitched. He started speaking as his brain put it together. “So, not impactors then. They broke apart at the same altitude regardless of friction heating on each individual one. This is more like.. more like a means to disseminate something into the planet’s jet stream. The Vengeance has something like that, it spreads chaff in the atmosphere to fuck with comms planetside.” Jim stroked his beard. 

“You have a point which I had not considered, Jim. I will contact science resources on the ground and request meteorological data for the planet and create an aerosol plume model. I will also request medical data from the New Carthage Hospital and attempt to determine the potential of it being a chemical weapon.” Wraith was excited again, Jim was certain. “Communications from the planet have not been impacted, and there have been no reports of unusual activity aside from the rapidly spreading wildfires and civil unrest, however we are not connected to planetary systems.”

“Yeah, get a list of shit to ask for together. We need to call the planetary admin and formally request permission to do all that but feel free to listen in.” Jim pondered for a moment. “Am I forgetting anything?” 

“Aside from the remaining Adversary ship in the system, I believe that is a comprehensive recap. You have a full schedule today, Jim. You need to contact Estevez, Nilson, and the planetary administrator soon.” If Jim didn’t know any better, he’d swear the AI sounded impatient. 

“Goddamn, okay. Call Lieutenant Commander Estevez on a private channel,” Jim ordered. Poaching Estevez would be a lot easier if she agreed to it, and Wraith was right that doing it now was the smart move. The view screen on Jim’s center display lit up with an outgoing call.

“Agent Crawford,” she answered, the video screen showing a young woman straight out of a fleet recruitment ad. Everything about her, from her posture to her hair to her uniform was crisp and perfectly squared away. 

“Jim please,” Jim asked. “I want to offer you a job, Estevez.” He could have swore she blushed, but that was probably an illusion cast by his own inner desires. 

“I’m flattered, but I’m the Bastion’s XO now, I can’t just leave Admiral Nilson without a second,” Estevez protested, “I don’t think the Admiral would approve of a transfer anyway.”

“Okay, two things Estevez. Thing one, this is a temporary reassignment to my support staff aboard one of the Darkstar destroyers. I need you there to help me unravel what’s happening around here. Thing two, I’ve got a job offer for Nilson too, it’s just not as immediate as yours.” Jim didn’t mention thing three; that actually, he was in charge of the system now and he could do whatever he wanted. Fleet officers were used to being the ultimate authority, but Dominion law was pretty clear about threats to intersystem commerce. 

“I see,” Estevez said, pursing her lips and at a loss for words. 

“Estevez, I’ve pulled your file and looked over your reports and reviewed how kicked ass all across this system. Your career doesn’t end with a posting aboard a security flotilla on the edge of nowhere. You have potential, Estevez. This assignment is the doorway to that. I’ll get Nilson’s blessing if that makes you feel better, but I want you to pack up your shit and get ready to come aboard the shuttle I’m sending over.”

“Yes sir, Jim, Sir,” she was stammering, “if Admiral Nilson says he can do without me and you think I can better serve humanity on your destroyer, I’ll accept the reassignment. I’d like to be involved at a higher level anyway.” 

“Very good, I’ll call Nilson now,” Jim said, and ended the call. Estevez didn’t know this but she’d already been on a short list for recruitment. 

The Bastion, her home ship, originally came through Oasis on it’s way to a classified mission a few systems out. Oasis wasn’t important beyond it’s utility as a jumping off point for a series of missions aimed at trying to figure out what happened kill this region of space. System after system had ancient ruins of civilizations long gone, all apparently terminating around the same time. The Bastion’s former captain was spooked by the briefing he’d received, lost his cool, and started babbling mission details to the crew. He’d been arrested, of course, and a cover story claiming he’d lost his mind was easy to plant since everything he leaked sounded like crazy talk. The Bastion was reassigned due to the lack of qualified leadership and Nilson had scooped it up as his flagship. If the Bastion had stayed on course, Estevez would have been brought into the fold much sooner. 

Jim stood up, stretched his legs, then say back down. New toothpick. “Alright, call Nilson. Private connection again please.”

“Sending connection request,” Wraith said. Minutes passed without the request being accepted. Jim was starting to worry that he’d called Nilson while he was sleeping. But, Nilson did answer. He looked like shit. 

“Nilson! Is this a bad time?” Jim genuinely felt bad for the man. He’d had his ass kicked. 

“Well, that depends on what you’re calling to talk about,” Nilson tried a joke. Jim decided a technique he called the ‘compliment sandwich’ was probably the right approach. 

“Nilson I wanted to congratulate you on your performance during this crisis,” Jim started. Nilson scoffed at the compliment. “Really, you were up against impossible odds and you came out ahead. I’ve been looking over the battle data and those Adversary ships were about as badass as they come. That beam weapon is diabolical and their point defense is just about impenetrable. A lesser Admiral would have met them with standard fleet tactics and been wiped out.”

“Well, thank you for coming in and giving us a path forward. And truly, thank you for saving the crew of the Rahvan. That weighed on me,” Nilson said, a look of exhaustion across his face. The Rahvan was currently docked to the Vengeance and rescue operations were underway. That big ship was designed to carry loads of soldiers and had plenty of space for a few hundred spacers. Plus, it was on the way. 

“Nilson, I called with an agenda. I’m a busy body. Always got something going on, you know?” Jim chuckled to himself, trying to lighten the mood. “There’s a shuttle about to launch from my ship over to yours. It’s got a SAECOM link on board that’s paired with the Wraith. You’ll get instantaneous access to all our sensors feeds system wide.” Nilson perked up at that. 

“How do you have a spare link? The relay is dead,” Nilson asked. The SAECOM links were pairs of nodes filled with quantum entangled pairs of subatomic particles. Quantum entanglement meant that manipulating the particles on one side caused the same change on the other side, instantaneously. Done right, this meant that information could be shared instantly, regardless of distance. Rift travel severed the entanglement, so new pairs had to be created after a rift jump. That was typically handled by relays, who’d use massive particle accelerators to weave together pairs of particles and pair new nodes. The relay would house one end, and all the ships and other relays would house the other. The Wraith, being the badass stealth intelligence ship that it was, had the first generation of node pairing equipment that was miniaturized enough to fit on a starship. 

“That’s classified,” Jim growled mischievously. “Damn near everything I do is classified, Nilson. You’re in the need to know on some stuff but not that one.”

“You’re a weird bastard, Jim. But I’ll take the help,” someone had handed Nilson a cup of coffee, and the life seemed to come back to him as he drank.

“I want to mix up the crew around here a bit Nilson, and I wanted your input before I made any big changes,” Jim said, pausing while Nilson took a sip from his cup, then nodded. “Here’s the plan, I’m a civilian, so I’ll take charge of the planet. They’ve got fires and shit going out of control and it’s just a matter of time until we’ve got to move and do something down there. You’re senior ranking fleet, but my warships are special to me, you understand?” Jim waited for Nilson to nod again before moving on. “I’m going to give you command of the two battlecruisers moving down the well. The Vengeance has capabilities I want to keep for myself, so I’m hanging on to that one. The destroyers on the other hand, well,” Jim chuckled. This was the real trade for Estevez. 

“Those are a new type of warship I’ve been testing out and they are bad ass,” Jim smiled his best used-ship salesman cat smile. “They’re a new class of stealth destroyers, called the Darkstar class. There’s four of them in this system and I’ll bet you a thousand credits you can’t find em. That’s because they’re stealth, like the name says. They’re also carrying a ton of firepower and a suite of sensors like none other. They’re commanded by one Senior Captain Aleki Anae, he’s aboard the UHDN Pulsar. The UHDN Blazar is coming down here to help with intel and coordination. I’m keeping that one to myself too. The other three are out searching for the last Adversary ship. I want to find and kill that fucker without losing any of my badass warships, and I think you’re the man for the job.” 

Nilson didn’t say anything for a moment, apparently absorbing the information. “You on board, Admiral?” Jim prodded. 

“I’m on board,” Nilson replied. 

“Good man!” Jim exalted, “I’ve got a favor to ask in return. That intel officer you’ve got, Estevez, I want her working aboard the Blazar. She’s got insight and experience that I want working for both of us. Plus, I want to tell her secret shit that I just can’t say if she’s on the Bastion. No offense.”

To Nilson’s credit, he didn’t balk. He knew it was the right move in the big picture. “Sounds like a solid plan, Jim. I’m on board. How long until we can get started?” 

Jim smiled, genuine this time. “More than enough time for you to hand off command to someone and get a full night of sleep. It’s three days for the Vengeance to get down here and I don’t want to organize a posse until we have everything ready to go. The shuttle is on it’s way though, and the Blazar has been lingering around here keeping an eye on the Wraith.  I’ll get Estevez settled and get you a system wide sensor feed.” 

Nilson nodded and signed off.

Alright, Jim stood again, growing tired of toothpicks. One last call. “Wraith call the planetary admin.” Lets make this one quick. The call was answered immediately. A short, angry, red looking fat man with a profound mustache answered. 

“I swear, I’ve been calling you fucking assholes for days trying to figure out just what the hell is going on up there! The whole colony is going to hell in a hand-basket!” Spittle flew out of the man’s pig mouth, his voice was nasally and irritating. Jim hated him immediately. “The whole colony is up in arms and they’re angry at me! Like I had something to do with your incompetence!”

“Take it down a notch,” Jim growled. “I’m SIU Agent Jim Crawford, Systems Intelligence Division.” The fat man paled at hearing the name of Jim’s employer. “I’ve declared a system wide emergency and I’m taking charge. I’ll send an update down to you and you can share it among the colony. Anyone gets uppity, you send them to me, got it?” Jim smiled. 

“SIU… it must be worse than I thought. Did corporate send you?” The fat man asked. The SIU was jointly managed by the Dominion government and the ISD. A development corporation that controls both the rift gate network and the colony here on Oasis. Hell, they control most of the Dominion if you looked past the thin veneer of democracy. 

“No, I was in the neighborhood,” Jim sighed, then continued. “You’re staying on lockdown for now but I promise I’ll start providing updates that are worth a damn. Fleet is paranoid about saying too much, I ain’t. I’ll also need access planetary systems, of course.” Jim was ready to fire the bastard and take charge, but he had to make sure his decision was defensible to the politicians back home. It was better than way. “You got it?”

“That would be great! Listen I’ve done an admirable job of holding things together, I’m sure you’ll make sure to put that in any report or anything back to the development board, right?” The fat man asked, sniveling. 

Jim suppressed his displeasure. “Yeah. You got it.”

Chapter 14

Subject: Maddy

The airlock door to the science lab slid open, Liselle waiting inside with a smile on her face. Maddy greeted her with a hug. That’s work appropriate, right? “You got everyone together?” Maddy asked. This was her second attempt at getting the science team on her side. 

“I got Doctor Carney to agree to talk to you again, everyone else is running a long synthesis. We are trying to catch up on side projects since we haven’t been collecting new samples from the field.” Liselle explained as they walked through the science lab. 

Maddy sighed, Carney was a nightmare last time. “Okay, thanks.”

They rounded a corner and came to a common area. It was a lot like the security team’s, but far messier. Doctor Carney stood with her arms crossed, looking impatient. 

“Okay, Doctor Carney, I have a problem that I want your help with, and I think you’ll be interested in helping once I tell you what it is.” Maddy tried to get ahead of the verbal abuse.

Carney’s expression changed, reflecting a genuine interest. “Okay, I’m listening.” Carney gestured towards a collection of spartan couches and cushioned chairs. Liselle sat and Maddy joined her. Carney had a cup of tea and sat crosslegged on the couch facing Maddy, cradling the cup in her hands. 

“I have to start with a question. What is the deal with kids in New Carthage? Why have them, and why are they banned from going into the city proper?” Maddy asked. 

Liselle started to speak but Carney cut her off, “well its simple really. Children under sixteen can’t safely have a medical nanite system installed. Groups of more than, say, a half dozen people without defenses against the local microbiology is just asking for trouble. The more people in a gathering, the more likely they are to promote the evolution of a novel life form that can infect them.”

“That makes sense. So, why have them at all?” Maddy asked. 

“Well, colonists were encouraged to have children during the first few years of colonization. It’s actually very important for the health of a colony to have that sense of community, and as you know, human birth rates are the only thing holding humanity back from the stars.” Carney said. 

“That and the aliens,” Liselle added. 

“So, what happened with the colonists that had kids before the colony effort was abandoned?” Maddy asked. 

Carney beat Liselle to the answer again, “they formed small communities outside of population centers. Kids aren’t an automatic death sentence. As long as there aren’t a lot of them in one place, they’re generally okay. I’m really curious to know where this is going Maddy. If you’re pregnant its okay to say it.”

“NO!” Maddy reacted, shocked. Liselle giggled, Maddy blushed and sighed. “Look, I’m trying to fix the things that Chief fucked up.”

“Good luck with that,” Carney muttered. Maddy ignored her and kept talking.

“I decided to pay a visit to the local police to see about fixing the damage there, and they asked me to investigate a missing persons case in a village outside of the barrier.” Maddy pulled out her smart link and navigated to the map, showing Carney and Liselle where the village was located. 

“Oh I know that place!” Liselle exclaimed. “We have a monitoring station out there. We used to land in the village hike in. The people were super nice and loved to trade things from the city with us. Someone is missing?”

“Yeah. Five people actually, all the kids in the town. They all disappeared overnight at the same time.” Maddy said, clearly bringing down the atmosphere a few notches. Liselle looked sad and Carney’s expression changed to one of resolve. Maddy had won her over, at least for now. 

Maddy continued, “I can lead the investigation, I have experience in this sort of thing from the corps, but I would really value your teams perspective. It’s kind of weird that all five would disappear at the same time and even weirder, it seems to be happening all over New Carthage.” 

“We’re in. If there’s kids involved, we’re in.” Carney was stone-cold serious. Liselle nodded along. “Plus, there’s a monitoring station there that we really need to get the filters changed on. I suggest you bring us along, we’ll take one team and change the filters and then we’ll join you in the village after you’ve had a chance to get some information from the locals. When are we leaving?”

“Pack your stuff, I’ll get us a ride,” Maddy smiled. This plan was coming together.

Two hours later and they were in the air and heading towards the village Detective Ward had asked them to investigate. The second Maddy had announced an operation for Team Two, they were on their feet clamoring for action. Even the pilot was ecstatic to have something to do after days of uncertainty. Maddy shot a text to Detective Ward. 

Maddy: Hey, I’m heading to the village you wanted me to check out. Any word on the other cases?

Ward: Not yet, been busy. By the way, the fleet finally gave an update. It’s not public yet, but the outage was caused by an alien incursion! 

Maddy: WTF

“Two minutes out!” The pilot shouted. Maddy tore herself away from her smart link. Aliens explained a lot, but all the way out here? Oasis was supposed to be away from all that. Maddy compartmentalized the uncertainty and got back on task. Focusing on something solid did wonders for calming nerves.

“Okay team, here’s the drill. Pilot, set us down in the village and get on a holding pattern. Backup LZ is one kilometer east on the plateau. Felix! You’re in charge of fireteam one. Take Gremlin, Two-Feet, and Peanut and escort the science team to their objective, the monitoring station on the hill to the south.” Maddy paused and scanned the inside of the shuttle. Everyone was nodding along. Doctor Carney and Liselle made up the science team on this one. “Dad and I are fireteam two and we are staying in the village to interview the locals about the missing kids. Use TAC1 primary comms. Any questions?”

“No ma’am!” Felix shouted. Everyone else shook their heads no. 

“On approach now,” the pilot announced. Maddy hit the button to slide open both side doors on the shuttle. She looked out at the village. A half dozen prefab structures were intermixed with improvised shelters. The buildings were surrounded by rowed gardens and primitive tools. The genetically modified green of the Terran born plants stood in stark contrast to the reds and purples of the native fauna. A wooden fence with coils of razor wire lined the perimeter of the village, with at least one gate opening to a single track trail visible. Maddy didn’t see any people among the structures. 

“Eyes on the target. Anyone seeing… anyone?” Maddy asked as she flipped to thermals. 

“Negative Sergeant,” Dad responded. “Maybe they’re out searching.”

“Nothing on thermals either, but the buildings look hot, maybe they’re inside,” Maddy added. Every prefabricated structure was reading much hotter than the surrounding environment. 

The shuttle touched down in a clearing just outside the village. The team filtered out of both sides of the aircraft and took up positions. The science team dismounted, throwing heavy cases of filters and equipment to the ground. Peanut and Two-Feet were wearing the heavy powered armor and stood still as the equipment was loaded onto their backs. Maddy and Dad wore light patrol armor, looking more like cops than soldiers. This was intentional; Maddy wanted to look professional but not frightening. She brought a 5.7mm submachine gun instead of the usual battle rifle. Dad packed a shotgun, just in case. 

No one came out to greet them. Great, Maddy thought, we scared them with the combat drop. Maddy keyed up TAC1, “alright, you know what to do. Meet back here when you’re finished.” 

“Yes ma’am!” Felix responded. Clearly very excited to be in charge of a fireteam. Fireteam one marched off down a game trail, the team clearly familiar with the terrain. Maddy turned to face the village, Dad at her side. 

“Hello? Science team security!” She shouted at the buildings. “We’re here for the missing person’s report.” No one came out. Maddy took a few hesitant steps and called out again. No response. 

“They gotta be out searching,” Dad said. 

Maddy keyed up the pilot, “air ops, do a grid search with thermals and see if you can spot the locals. We’re thinking they’re out looking around.”

“Copy that!” The pilot responded. “Nothing yet but I’ll let you know.”

Maddy looked at the village. There was a central ‘road’ with buildings lined on either side. “Dad, take the right side, I’ll take the left. Door to door until we find someone. 

“Yes sergeant,” Dad responded. He was on, dialed in. Maddy’s sixth sense tingled and she thought about pulling the science team back to have more backup, but pushed it down. Maddy though Dad was feeling it too. 

She walked up to the first structure, improvised and small, no more than a shed. She knocked on the door and announced herself before opening the shoddy wooden door. The shed held a handful of gardening tools and a stack of wood next to a hand-built workbench. The wood was black.

“Clear,” Maddy announced on the radio before exiting and moving to the next structure. This one was a prefab, one of the buildings colonists set down as a first wave, temporary sort of thing. Not meant to be a forever home. Maddy knocked and announced herself. No response. Dad cleared a structure behind him. 

Maddy pushed the door open and walked inside. It was dark. Do they have electricity? She wondered. 

“Helloooo,” Maddy said. She reached up to turn on thermals, but decided her helmet light would be better, that way she wouldn’t sneak up on anyone. No one was home, but the place looked odd, out of place. She walked towards a door and slid it open. In the corner, Maddy saw a thick, stringy mess of white, damp… vines? Maddy approached and poked at it with the edge of a clothes hanger that was laying on the ground. It gave under a light press, but stayed stuck to the wall. Maddy couldn’t pull the hanger away. 

She keyed up Dad, “hey are there any native xenos that make webs?” 

“Like, big ones?” Dad’s voice was vaguely worried. 

“Yeah like, I dunno. The strings are maybe three or four centimeters in diameter. It’s too big for catching normal sized bugs.” Maddy poked at the vine or web or whatever again. 

“Where’d you find that?” Dad asked flatly, the note of worry being more prevalent. 

Maddy stood and took in her surroundings, “a bedroom. In the corner.”

“Yeah, I’m seeing that shit too Sergeant,” Dad’s fear amping up more as he spoke, “should we bug out?”

“Not yet. There could easily be a weird bug or fungus or some damn thing that does this. We’ll have the science team look at it when they get back. If you see any more weird shit call it out.” Maddy was starting to feel even worse, like she should pull back and get the rest of the team in, but she had no legitimate reason to do so, and she didn’t want to change the plan now. She decided to check in, maybe they’d make it back on their own in time. 

She mic’d TAC1, “Felix, check in.” A brief delay.

“All good Sarge! We’re at the objective and the science team is changing filters now. It’s actually real quiet. We didn’t even see anything to shoot at.” Felix reported. 

Maddy stepped outside, “very good. Don’t delay getting back. We haven’t found anyone here yet but I’m getting a weird feeling.”

“Should we come back now, Sarge?” Felix asked. 

“No, finish the mission and head back,” Maddy looked up at the sky. Now that Felix mentioned it, there weren’t any of the usual thousands of not-birds. There weren’t any of the flying bugs either. Maddy listened and heard… silence. Totally unusual. Red flags. Maddy checked the mag in her submachine gun while she approached the next building. 

“Clear,” Dad checked in. 

Maddy stopped at the threshold, hearing something inside. Not quite voices, but a gulping sound? Maddy pushed the door open and stepped in. 

The room had light, but that made everything so much worse. Maddy couldn’t comprehend the sight in front of her; her mind stopped like a truck hitting a brick wall. The room was sparse, a living room of some sort. In the corner of the room, a man was sitting against a wall with his arm outstretched, held in place before him. He was stuck to the wall with a mess of webbing in an awkward pose, his clothing partially melted off of him. His red, begging eyes turned to Maddy and his mouth opened wide, jaw quavering.

In the center of the of the room lay a huge glistening sack of sickly yellow flesh, pulsating and writhing. It had a abdomen like a spider’s, thin and covered in brown chitin plates. Four insect legs with disturbingly human muscles rested below it. The end of the thing, the head, was a horrific assortment of inwardly facing appendages surrounding a wide, open maw. It was trying to force something down, it’s mouth-arms greedily shoving and packing, making a slurping, choking sound as it went. The something in its mouth had legs. Human legs. They kicked wildly.

Maddy was frozen in place. Every muscle in her body screamed to turn and run but her mind was paralyzed by fear. Her stomach flipped upside down and her vision narrowed. The man in the corner started screaming, his voice hoarse, breathy, and hollow. He must’ve been screaming for hours before Maddy got there. 

“HEEELLP!, HEELP THEM! THEY’RE IN THERE! ALIVE IN THERE!” The terror in his voice was infectious, Maddy stared at the thing in the center of the room, her mind racing. Details clarified as she watched the bulbous mass of the thing pulse and shift. The shapes within it were familiar and alien at the same time. A human hand pressed out from within, distending the flesh. Human shapes materialized from within the creature now that Maddy knew to recognize them. It was full of people, and they were still moving. The man screamed.

The fleet marine in Maddy took control. She raised her submachine gun, unsure of where to fire. The whole fucking thing was full of people, she would kill them if she shot. The man in the corner screamed, “SHOOT IT! KILL THE- KILL IT PLEASE!” Maddy squeezed the trigger, the submachine gun let out a fearsome BRRRRT as a half dozen armor penetrating rounds tore into the abdomen. The creature wailed and raised it’s torso into the air, it’s four motive legs flexing to their full length. It hit the ceiling. 

Maddy let out another burst of fire, then another. She screamed as she shifted into a fighting stance and pressed the trigger down with all of her strength. Round-after-round passed through the monster, it smashed it’s torso into the ground, raised it, and smashed it again, over and over, wailing like a siren. Maddy dropped a spent mag and loaded another with military precision, smacking the bolt release closed and firing another stream of death into the damned thing. It tried to scurry backwards through a doorway as Maddy fired into it, but it was too fat to fit through. It’s legs struggled in vain to escape the withering bursts. It’s guttural rasps mixed with the bursts of machine gun fire and Maddy’s war cry as she advanced on the thing, firing. She emptied another eighty-round mag, swapped it with her last, and kept firing. The thing lifted it’s torso into the air, reaching the ceiling. It wouldn’t fucking die!

Suddenly, a series of loud, rhythmic booms echoed through the room and chunks of the creature’s torso were blown away. Dad had come in with auto shotgun and started blasting away at the creature. BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM. The auto shotgun was meant for big game; each slug it fired blasted chunks of plating and flesh off the torso. His fire mirrored Maddy’s, every round into the creatures limbed midsection. Smoke filled the room as the weapons barked and spit. The creature fell to the floor under the security team’s shared assault. Maddy and Dad kept firing until their weapons ran dry. The creature’s torso was nearly cut in half, held together with a few strips of ragged, yellow flesh. It’s blood was a deep red, almost black, and was splattered all over the room. The legs in it’s mouth weren’t moving anymore.

Maddy was a woman possessed, she dropped her submachine gun and drew a long combat knife out of her thigh holster. Dad muttered, eyes wide, and pumped new shells into his shotgun. “Help me!” Maddy said to him, “they’re fucking alive in there!” She advanced on the dead thing’s writhing sack, running her knife across it. The outer layer of flesh was thick and fibrous, Maddy had to saw to get through it. Dad slung his shotgun over his shoulder and joined in, sawing and hacking at the mass. 

Maddy got through the outer layer and found the inside to be a pink semi-solid, a thick jelly. She found it much easier to split it once she had a hole opened, and her blade eviscerated the thing, spilling steaming, goo covered human shapes onto the floor. They people that came out were naked, and wrong. Their skin was smooth and glassy and bright red. An arm reached out from the mess and she grabbed it to help pull the person out of the dead creature, but the skin pulled away from the arm and Maddy stumbled backwards. 

“Oh my god,” Dad said. Maddy’s face twisted in horror as the man in the corner started screaming. 

A voice crackled over the comms, the pilot’s voice. “Hey I’ve got a bunch of contacts on thermal coming out of the east by the backup LZ. They’re uh, mostly human shaped, but way too big to be the locals. I think y’all should get to the primary LZ as fast as you can, like right now.” 

Maddy was numb, this was unreal. She hit the comms, her voice surprisingly strong considering how she felt, “fireteam one you need to triple time it to the LZ right fucking now. Get aboard and shoot anything that isn’t human.” 

“Yes Sergeant!’ Felix responded, excitement in his voice. 

Maddy turned to Dad and pointed at the man in the corner. “Help me get him, the people in this thing are fucked and so are we if we hang around.” Dad nodded. 

The man in the corner sobbed, “I couldn’t do anything, I could’t help anyone,” he repeated over and over. Maddy and Dad cut through the webbing with their knives. Maddy noticed the pink goo from the creature that was still on her gloves and knife dissolved the webs immediately. She freed the man’s arm and it immediately latched onto Maddy’s shoulder with surprising strength, digging into her muscle. 

“Ow fuck!” Maddy shouted, punching the man in the shoulder and pointing a knifehand at him “You do that again and I’ll break your fucking nose!” She wasn’t herself, the fear was taking charge. She took a deep breath to calm herself. Slow is steady, steady is fast. Calm is fast. She cut through the last webs with Dad, gently pushing away and pinning the man’s limbs in a a way to avoid hurting him. He kept trying to grab them while sobbing and muttering incoherently. The guy had been through hell. 

Maddy and Dad worked wordlessly. They stood the crying man up and immediately pushed him against a wall, pinning his arms behind his back. Maddy slid her arm under his elbow and twisted his hand out as Dad cuffed him. She could hear him mutter, “fit, placement, double locked…”. Good man, he was focusing on little things to center himself. “Let’s move,” he said as soon as the crying man was restrained enough that they could get him moving to the shutting without having to fight him anymore. 

The man cried, “NO! NO! NO!” As they walked by the mess of squirming, steaming bodies on the floor. Maddy spoke to him calmly and sweetly, ostensibly trying to calm him, but really trying to calm herself. Focusing on details to avoid having to think about the people they were leaving behind. 

Maddy and Dad walked the man outside, gently aiming him towards the landing zone. Felix and the others came running up the game trail; the science team, and unsurprisingly, Peanut, were red and out of breath, huffing. They met up in the open space as the shuttle hovered overhead, descending. The crying man blubbered unintelligible nonsense non-stop. 

Gremlin gestured at the man and spoke up over comms, “who’s this, Chief Junior?”

“What happened to you?” Two-Feet asked, his eyes wide and full of fear. Maddy realized she was probably covered in blood and gore from the creature. 

“No time right now! Cover all sides and combat load, science team and this guy first!” Maddy ordered. The shuttle touched down, engines roaring. Felix and Gremlin hopped into the shuttle behind the science team. Maddy and Dad walked the crying man to the shuttle and sat him down on the cargo deck; the team aboard lifting him and strapping him down into a seat. Maddy drew her sidearm and raised it to low ready, scanning the bushes while the team unloaded the filter decks and equipment off the power-armored security officers. They loaded up, and Maddy jumped in behind them. The shuttle lifted off without hesitation, Maddy barely getting her seat restraints on before the shuttle banked and flew full speed towards New Carthage. 

 She flipped on her thermals and looked down at the forest below her. Any doubt on whether it was the right idea to leave the melted villagers behind vanished as Maddy watched a wave of twisted figures rushed into the village, just moments behind her team. They would have been slaughtered. 

Maddy looked at Dad. His eyes were hollow. “What the fuck was that, Dad? What kind of xenos were those?”

“Not Oasis xenos,” Dad responded. A chill washed down Maddy’s back. 

“What happened down there?” Felix asked, concerned. Liselle and Carney looked petrified. Who knows what they heard on the comms. 

“Xenos overran the village, killed everyone. This guy,” she gestured at the crying man, “was the only one alive that we know of. It was a mess, a real mess. We’ll download the helmet cam footage and debrief back at the station.” Maddy felt tired, the adrenaline metabolizing out of her system now that the danger was mostly over. 

“Pilot, we need to drop one off at the New Carthage Hospital. Put us on the shuttle pad on the roof. Felix, call the hospital and let them know we have one coming in, tell them it was a xeno attack, I’m going to let the cops know they need to sit on him.” Her team responded in the affirmative, and Maddy pulled out her smart link. 

Maddy: We went to the village. Everyone is dead. We are dropping one surviving villager at the hospital. Please send an officer to sit on him if you can and meet us at the station for a debrief. It’s way too much to text. 

Ward: Holy shit! Are you guys okay?

Maddy: We’re okay.

Ward: Any word on the kids?

Maddy: I think they’re dead. I think the whole village is dead. 

Ward: Xenos???

Maddy: Yeah, fucked up ones. We have footage. You have to see for yourself, I can’t describe it. 

Ward: Okay. I’m on my way to your HQ. I’ll see you soon. 

Chapter 15

Subject: Detective Elizabeth Ward

Ward pulled up to the hospital, the improvised chain link mesh on the patrol car banging against the windshield. They hadn’t needed the makeshift armor in quite a while, and they’d fallen behind on maintaining the fleet of decaying, beaten cars. Parts were hard to come by at the edge of space, go figure. 

“Okay, I’ll be back by in a few hours to interview the subject if he’s talkative. Feel free to ask him questions if you can,” Ward said to the patrol officer as he slid out of the car. He gave her a thumbs up, closed the door, and walked towards the entry. “Well, beats a standing post on a fucking sidewalk,” she muttered to herself, pulling the car back out on the roadway. The automated road barriers were still up, but they lowered automatically when the patrol car approached. 

Ward cruised the streets on the way to the security station. The planetary admin had finally sent out official word on the crisis. Even though it was caused by an alien incursion, of all things, the act of knowing seemed to ameliorate the public. Groups of people milled about the sidewalks and bodegas, but the energy was more reserved. Less ‘pissed-off citizens demanding answers’, and more ‘beaten down colonists weathering another storm’. 

The people of Oasis III had been through so much. Ward was a first wave colonist and had seen the whole thing firsthand. From the challenges of clawing out the bones of New Carthage from the brutal wildlife, to the first waves of illness and death. The months of sickness without any answers or progress weren’t the worst thing, it was being abandoned by ISD once the cause was found.

Most didn’t know, but the Iapetus System Development board of directors was ready to pull out; tear up the contracts and leave the colonists to die on the surface. Months of uncertainty plagued the colony, until it was announced that everyone would be getting medical nanites to keep them alive, and everyone would have to finish their contracts as a result. It was demoralizing beyond belief, especially if you considered what the colony would actually be like once colonists started finishing their contracts and moved on. 

The devolution plan was insane and it was destined to fail.  No one wanted to talk about it. The first wave of expiring contracts were high level administrators; politicians and the connected wealthy. They all took their turns guiding policy, brushing up their resumes, and getting out before the shit really hit the fan. Most of the skilled workers were on twelve or fourteen year contracts. Plumbers, water treatment workers, hydroponic farmers, nurses, doctors. They’d all leave, and all that would be left were the last wave, the laborers. The fifteen plus year contracts. No one to keep the lights on. Forced to stay on a decaying, dying colony for no reason other than corporate spite. Ward doubted ISD even remembered them. Even their paychecks were in the worthless local currency, not even a blip on the corporate ledger. 

Ward sighed and pulled up to another barricade, this one taking it’s time to retract. Reminiscing was always how she got through a crisis. Remembering how things had seemed so impossible once before reminded her of the true resiliency of the citizens of New Carthage. They had nothing, just the spirit of perseverance and grit. 

Ward thought about the off-world federal security team and their scientists. She recalled how their ‘liaison’ had once screamed at her for not cracking down on every petty theft, for not rounding up the animals and throwing them all in jail.  They didn’t even try to understand what that would look like. They didn’t care to learn that the jail only held two hundred people, or that a full twenty-percent of New Carthage’s population was thought to be using zoo. They weren’t here when the colony was abandoned, and the grants dried up, and the small army of chemists, scientists, and botanists found themselves without work or purpose. They came in with federal scientists to do work the locals would have killed for; and they didn’t even recognize it.

Where they saw rampant crime, Ward understood that it was stability. Not ideal, not even good, no. But it was far better than the early days when rival drug factions fought over territory. When addicts were used as expendable foot soldiers to wage terror campaigns against users of another faction’s particular flavor of zoo. Sure, the property crime was a problem, but it was non-violent. People weren’t dying anymore. Well, until the past few days, Ward figured. 

The missing persons cases continued to climb. First, it was kids. All of the kids, Ward was pretty sure. Then it ticked up a bit; folks who wandered out of hamlets and settlements outside of town but still within the barrier. Scavengers who looked for things of value in the forests. And now, apparently, a whole village had been destroyed by xenos. It was too weird, too specific, and too consistent to not be connected, and the new security-marine off-worlder that wanted to play federal police was claiming to have combat footage of an attack by some new kind of xeno.

The car pulled up to a stop in front of the station. The place was covered in cameras. It looked like a dump. She knocked on the door and waited a few moments until a young man with a wide, toothy smile answered.

“Hey, you’re the cop! Sarge said you’d be by. We were just about to watch the action. Come in, come in,” he gestured at her; he was very animated. 

“How’d you guess?” Ward said sarcastically. She was in her full patrol uniform, still running patrol shifts as the department tried to ease back from emergency staffing. 

Ward followed the young man into a common area. A large kitchen in the center, flanked to the left by a living area with couches and chairs surrounded a display screen. To the right was a a dining area with several tables. A group of security folks were gathered in the living room, Maddy and the older guy she’d had with her back in town were in the kitchen, somber expressions. Guarded body language. They were alone, trying to talk away from everyone, it seemed. The kitchen had a half dozen people in literal lab coats. Obviously the science team. They didn’t interact with the security team much, by the looks of it. One creepy looking bastard was hovering by a stairwell, his skeletal face marked by a reptile grin and a wild mustache. A pair of men were standing around with him. 

The screen started showing helmet cam footage, and both Maddy and dad turned away and winced. The footage was a split screen of both of their points of view as they cleared buildings in some dump of a settlement. Ward walked into the kitchen and approached Maddy.

“Appreciate you taking the time to look into this for me,” she stuck her hand out and shook Maddy and the other man’s hands in turn. 

“Of course,” Maddy said. “We actually had some science shit to do in the neighborhood, go figure.”

Ward hid her discomfort. Locals should be doing the science work, they were perfectly capable. A thin, woman in a lab coat walked up and joined them, she looked away from Ward, overcome by her shy nature. Ward ignored her. 

“I’ve got someone keeping an eye on the guy you pulled out of the village. The survivor has apparently been a handful at the hospital and had to be chemically restrained. I guess he went through some shit, huh?” Ward studied the security officer’s reactions. Both of them seemed to be lost for a minute. Ward could hear them alternating “clear” in the videos as they moved to new structures. 

“Not surprised,” the man said, “we had to cuff him to get him on the shuttle. Hope you aren’t expecting a use of force report from us.”

“Technically, I should be paying you a bounty for bringing him in. He violated his employment contract. Course, the payment would be in local currency…” Ward said, interrupted by screaming coming from the display. Maddy winced, but Ward turned and watched. 

What followed was absolute hell. Ward couldn’t look away. The reality of the attack on the village was far worse than Ward thought. Someone paused the video and rewound,  trying to clarify some detail. Ward was able to break focus from the madness and looked around the room. Maddy and the older guy were turned away, whispering to each other. The young scientist girl had her hand over her mouth an was trembling. Everyone was glued to the screen. There was silence. They watched the video three times through. The science team was the first to talk. 

“That creature is highly unusual. Everything about it is odd, even the coloration,” a tall nerdy man said. 

“Did we get a sample?” An older blonde scientist said. She had an air of authority about her. Ward assumed she was some sort of higher up on the team. 

“Maddy, do you still have the knife?” The shy one asked. 

Maddy sighed, nodded, and pointed at a pile of garbage bags on the floor. “My uniform is covered in samples, it’s all in that bag. Knife’s in there too. All of my gear is in there.” 

The science team started babbling excitedly. Ward chose to ignore them and turned back to Maddy. “Well, I’ve never seen anything like that before.” Maddy nodded. “Good job killing the fucking thing. Send me a copy of this video? I want to share it with our control teams.” Knowing the control teams, they’d probably fly out there in that gunship of theirs and burn the whole village to the ground in response. 

“Yeah,” Maddy said, humorlessly. Ward caught the creepy smiling man in the corner backing away, gesturing wildly as his escort led him up the stairs. Hang on a minute, she thought, thats their liaison!

“Jesus, is that Chief?” Ward asked. Maddy nodded. “He looks like shit. Is he using zoo?”

“I wouldn’t think so, why? Isn’t acting like one of the animals,” Maddy replied.

“Look, I’ve been around the stuff for forever now. Small doses are sustainable for a while. It makes you act weird and crazy, sure, but you don’t turn into a quivering mess all at once.” Ward dug into her vest pocked and pulled out a small plastic bag. “Here,” she said, handing it to Maddy. “This is a test kit. Works on any bodily fluid. Blood, saliva, you know. Might be worth looking into.” 

Maddy seemed exhausted by the thought, but the older man only nodded. 

“Thanks Ward, “ she said. “I actually don’t really want to know but I guess I have to look into this now.” 

Ward understood that perfectly. Some stones are better left unturned. She said her goodbyes, promised to share updates on the investigation and left. Her smart link buzzed, and she checked it. Twelve notifications on new missing persons cases since she’d been inside. I actually don’t want to know, she thought.