Carthage Prime Read online

  You still with me, Alex?

  “Yeah,” Alex managed to say, just as he pulled out of his dive.

  You’re at four thousand meters.

  “Is the bogey still on us?”

  You’ve bought yourself a few seconds, but there’s no time to slow down.

  Slowing down was the last thing on Alex’s mind. He raced up and down, banking hard enough that he saw spots. The Titans were incredibly fast when descending, but he was starting to run out of space.

  Alex, you just passed fifteen hundred meters. The deck on this exercise is one thousand meters.

  “I know it,” Alex said.

  He pulled up, racing for the sky again, giving the suit all the power it had, but his speed slowed and the missile gained on him.

  The missile is on your tail.

  Alex dove into a spiral, then banked hard to his right. The alarm beeping, which sped up as the missile closed in on him, was a continuous tone.

  Sly’s down, Nyx said.

  “I can’t shake it,” Alex admitted through clenched teeth.

  Stay on this course until I tell you, then pull up as hard as you can.

  “Okay,” Alex said.

  He was completely out of ideas, and the missile seemed to have endless fuel to pursue him with. The alarm sounded like a mechanical scream, as if the missile trailing him were a mythical banshee chasing him to his death.

  Now! Nyx ordered.

  Alex pulled up hard. The maneuver slowed him down and the g-forces almost made him pass out. But the alarm tone stopped.

  Reverse course and climb.

  Alex reacted as if the words in his head were his own thoughts. The INC gave him total control of the Titan and reacted to his will at the speed of thought. It shot up into a steep climb in the opposite direction of his previous trajectory.

  “Is it still following?”

  The missiles have a slower turn rate, but we’re not clear yet. Oh no, Ash just went down.

  Alex was the last of the three fliers. He felt isolated and exposed. There were no missiles in the air and no destroyed aircraft or lost lives, but the computers calculated the hits and cut off the downed trainees’ communication. He was climbing for safety, but there was no guarantee he would survive.

  The missile is back on course. Contact in twenty-one seconds.

  “What’s my altitude?”

  Eight thousand meters and climbing. Fuel is down to thirty percent, but it should be enough.

  “Titan One, cease your training exercise and return to base,” a grim voice crackled over the trainer’s internal speakers.

  “Master Sergeant Gellar,” Alex said. “Did we win?”

  “The exercise is incomplete. Return to base.”

  “Incomplete? What gives?” Ash asked. “Ace was still in the fight.”

  “It wasn’t a combat exercise, Private Timmons, which is precisely why you failed.”

  “Dang, that’s harsh,” Sly said.

  “At least I wasn’t the first one hit,” Ash said.

  “Nyx, do you know what’s going on?” Alex asked.

  Negative. No word up here.

  “Maybe we’re being recalled for failing,” Alex said.

  He hadn’t been hit, and in all likelihood would have survived the engagement, real or simulated. They had also identified the targets they were sent to find, but operating an FA Titan came with the heavy responsibility of ensuring the battle suit, which cost over a hundred million credits to manufacture, wasn’t needlessly lost. A lump of fear formed in Alex’s stomach. Perhaps ordering his team to dive in an effort to avoid the missiles was a mistake. The loss of three Titans on a reconnaissance mission was probably considered a total failure. It made Alex question whether he was really good enough to be entrusted with the most advanced battle suit in the CDF fleet.

  He was spiraling down toward the base as he worked to remove the fear of failing from his mind. The mission results were a neutral circumstance; it was his thoughts about the mission that were making him afraid. Echo Company had a wide landing platform, and once he was down to five hundred meters, he let the Titan Trainer’s repulsers do the work. The unit descended slowly. Alex thought it was like being on an elevator, except he could see through the walls.

  Good luck, Alex. I’ll talk you soon.

  “Roger that, Nyx. Looking forward to it.”

  The battle suit landed easily, and the chest piece on the humanoid device popped forward with a hiss. Alex took a deep breath of the cool air. It was one of his favorite things about Helena Prime. After living most of his life on a level-three planet that required a re-breather every time he set foot outside, breathing the open air on the CDF training planet was a gift in itself.

  Ash was already on the ground, and Sly landed just as Alex was climbing out of his training unit. Master Sergeant Gellar walked out of the hangar and waved them in.

  “On the double, you three,” she barked. “The CO’s waiting.”

  They jogged across the tarmac together.

  “We do something wrong?” Sly asked.

  “If so, we blame Ace,” Ash said. “He’s got goodwill credit to burn.”

  “Very funny,” Alex said.

  “It’s about time,” Gellar snapped.

  She was holding the door open, and Alex followed Ash inside. It took a second for his eyes to adjust, but when they did, he saw the rest of Echo Company lined up nearby. He hurried over and joined them. Chief Landry was nowhere in sight, but as soon as Sly came up beside Alex, the CO appeared from a room on the far side of the hangar.

  “Atten-shun!” Master Sergeant Gellar barked in a loud voice. “Commander on deck.”

  “As you were,” he said as he came striding over toward the group. “I have news.”

  Alex, like the rest of the squad, waited for him to share the news. There was a grin on the chief’s face, so Alex assumed the news was good and not bad. He felt himself relax just slightly. At least they weren’t in trouble. Whatever news the chief had, at least it wouldn’t include a ticket back to the mining world of NP8261 where Alex had grown up.

  “Ahzco has won a bid for mineral rights on a brand-new planet, and the brass is calling for a full engagement.”

  Landry paused to let the weight of that news sink in. Alex understood from his studies as an operator with the CDF that a full engagement meant personnel on the ground and in orbit. It normally combined multiple squads with different specialties.

  “Fortunately for us,” Chief Landry continued, “the CDF is stretched thin, and they’re calling up the training units. That means us. We go wheels up in two hours at the spaceport. So grab your gear, people. We’re being deployed on an actual mission in deep space.”

  Alex felt the knot of fear that had been in his stomach return. A combat mission? They weren’t really ready for that. Alex wasn’t a coward, but he didn’t like the thought of Echo Company in a battle that they weren’t fully trained for. People whom he was beginning to think of as friends might die. His blood ran cold through his veins at the very thought of it.

  “You heard the man—the clock is ticking,” Master Sergeant Gellar shouted at them. “Get your gear packed and be back here in fifty-nine minutes, or I’ll come looking for you. And let me tell you, none of you want that.”

  “Yes, Master Sergeant!” the entire company shouted in reply.

  Alex felt numb. He wanted to ask Nyx if being deployed so soon was normal. She had become more than just a voice in his head. They were friends—in fact, she was his closest friend. But there was no time to send a message, and apart from his battle suit, he couldn’t communicate with her. All he could do was obey his CO and hope for the best.

  Chapter 3

  Alex didn’t have a lot of gear. Three sets of training fatigues and three sets of compression wear were rolled neatly and tucked into his rucksack. He also had socks, underwear, and toiletries in the bag, along with one set of civilian clothes and his heavy leather coat. The bag was heavy, but the padded stra
p made carrying it easy enough. His Flex PIL was in the thigh pocket of the fatigues he wore, and his lace-up boots thumped on the concrete as he hurried from his barracks back toward Echo Company’s hangar.

  “Yo, Ace,” Newt called. He was the second tallest member of the squad, with piercing blue eyes that stood out from the dusky hue of his skin.

  “What’s up, Newt?” Alex called back as Kyle Newton jogged to catch up. He had an identical rucksack slung over one shoulder.

  “You think we’ll get promoted?” Newt asked.

  “Why?”

  “Because we’re being deployed. They’re supposed to promote us to corporal once we’re deployed.”

  “I think we have to complete training first,” Alex said.

  “But surely we’ve done that if they’re sending us on a mission, right?”

  “I guess so,” Alex said, but in truth he wasn’t really sure.

  It didn’t make sense to him that they would send Echo Company on a mission when he and his team hadn’t even trained with weapons on the FA Titans. And Alex didn’t like the idea of going back to a ground-based battle suit. There was nothing wrong with the other MBS’s, but he had fallen in love with flying. Everything else now seemed lesser to him somehow.

  “Oh man, a bump in pay, a second stripe, and some excitement,” Newt said. “This gig gets better all the time.”

  Alex couldn’t disagree. He had no idea how much more money or prestige being a corporal would earn them, but it did sound nice. The only real drawback was not being able to go and visit his parents. Vice President Loman had assured him that once Alex finished training, he would have time and liberty for a visit to his parents’ new home on Skandia Seven. It seemed that idea was now off the table. If he was going to see his family again, he would have to survive long enough.

  “Do you know where we’re going?” Alex asked.

  “No, not really,” Newt said.

  Alex was learning more about his squad mates with each passing day. Newt was from a level-one world and had been well-educated at an all-boys school. His father was some type of government worker, and Alex couldn’t remember the name of the world his friend had grown up on. He silently scolded himself for not paying more attention in galactic geography.

  “The chief said we won the mineral rights, which must mean it isn’t a privately owned world,” Newt said. “The Free Trade Association is working its way through the galactic arm, opening up new worlds that are discovered to be habitable. I’m guessing it’s one of those.”

  “That’s a long way from here,” Alex said.

  “No doubt. We’ll have plenty of time to train on simulators, I would guess.”

  It wasn’t as satisfying as being in a real Titan mechanized battle suit, but a simulator was better than nothing. And they might even end up on a ship with their controllers. The one silver lining to being deployed was the chance to spend more time with Nyx.

  “I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” Alex said.

  “What are you two yapping about?”

  Alex and Newt both turned around at the same time. Oggy was just behind them, with Nuk and Tig on either side. They were united in their disdain for Alex, who they considered an interloper. Alex knew their feelings sprang from jealously, but it was hard not to resent them for the way they continued to treat him.

  “Just talking about the deployment,” Newt said, “and the possibility of promotion.”

  “What would you know about it?” Tig said.

  “Let’s go,” Alex recommended.

  “You know, one of these days, Ace,” Oggy said, his voice dripping with hostility, “we’re going to find out who really is the best.”

  “It’s not a contest, Oggy,” Alex said.

  “That’s what losers always say,” Nuk chimed in.

  “I say you got lucky on that training exercise,” Oggy continued, referring to an escape and evade field exercise that had pitted the entire squad against Alex. “If I had been suited up, you wouldn’t have made it halfway to the finish line.”

  “You won that exercise, Oggy,” Alex pointed out.

  “Yeah, you shot him in the back, remember?” Newt said.

  “It wasn’t a fair test, but one’s coming,” Oggy said. “Mark my words.”

  They were back at the hangar, and while Oggy showed no signs of easing his hostility toward Alex, he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut around Master Sergeant Gellar and Chief Landry. They were both waiting, just inside.

  “Stow your gear and get on the transit,” Gellar said. “We’ll head to the spaceport as soon as everyone gets back.”

  There were a few other trainees already on the transit, which was a ground-based people-mover. Alex guessed it would hold fifteen passengers plus a driver. The driver’s seat was empty along with the passenger seat beside it. Alex threw his rucksack into the back with the others and then sat in the middle. The transport had no doors or walls—just a floor, seats, and a roof with a few supports in the middle. Newt sat beside him, while Oggy and his friends sat in the back. Once the entire squad had arrived, Master Sergeant Gellar took the controls and drove them out of the hangar. The sun was going down, and the buildings around them took on an orange hue. As they waited for Chief Landry, Alex couldn’t help but wonder if he would ever make it back to the CDF training world. He knew there were other worlds in the galaxy that would make Helena Prime seem primitive, but Alex thought it was a wonderful place.

  The temperature was dropping, as it did every night on Helena Prime. Once the sun went down, the planet got cold. Most of the water was underground, and only certain types of imported flora could grow on the world. Alex thought the CDF had made Helena Prime into a paradise of sorts: a few towns, surrounded by vast deserts, each one a small oasis on an otherwise forbidding planet. He was roused from his internal musing by Ash. She was bold and often unashamedly loud, but there was a cheerfulness to her that Alex admired. She elbowed him in the ribs.

  “I’ll bet you’re glad to be getting off this rock,” she said with a chuckle. “I know I am.”

  Alex took a deep breath of the cool evening air. “Actually, I like it here.”

  “Ace is from some backwater world,” Newt said. “It doesn’t even have a name.”

  “Really? A no-name planet?” Ash asked. “That must have sucked.”

  “It wasn’t a pleasant place,” Alex admitted. “We called it the Rock. It makes Helena Prime seem like paradise.”

  “We’ve got to show this country bumpkin a good time, Newt,” Ash said. “Have you ever even been to a rager?”

  “I’ve seen them in holo-films,” Alex said.

  Ash laughed so hard that Alex and Newt couldn’t help but join in. It helped ease the tension Alex felt about the mission. When Chief Landry came out of the hangar and got into the transport beside Master Sergeant Gellar, Alex felt a sudden desire to hang onto something from the base. Seeing the dark hangar made him sad for some reason.

  “Cheer up, Ace,” Ash teased. “Life is about to get a lot better really fast.”

  “Yeah,” Sly said, leaning forward from the seat behind them. “Let’s just hope it doesn’t get a lot shorter, too.”

  Chapter 4

  The ride to the spaceport seemed short. Echo Company was joined by Delta, Charlie, and Bravo companies as they waited to board the shuttle that would take them up to the TROY space station.

  Each group stayed together, eyeing the other squads with skepticism. Alex hadn’t realized just how competitive the CDF was, and he couldn’t help but wonder how far along in their training the other companies were.

  “Maybe they weren’t training anymore,” Sly said. “Maybe they were just waiting to be called up.”

  “They don’t look any more ready than we do,” Ashton said.

  Alex could see the looks on the faces of the other squads. There was suspicion, anxiety, and lots of uncertainty.

  “I don’t think any of them have been on a real mission yet,” Alex said. “Th
is is a first for all of us.”

  The operators were herded onto the shuttle. Alex sat between Newt and Ash, with Sly just across the short aisle. The officers were in another cabin, and Master Sergeant Gellar joined the other NCO’s to make sure everyone was well-behaved. The flight up was easy, if not peaceful. Alex felt too unsettled, too ill-prepared to have confidence. But the operators made small talk and cracked jokes for the hour-long flight up to TROY. Once the shuttle docked, the master sergeants began barking orders.

  “Everyone line up,” Gellar shouted. “We are moving directly to the CDF carrier Republic. You will follow me, keep up, and keep your mouths shut. Am I making myself clear?”

  Alex thought Master Sergeant Gellar was a scary woman when she wanted to be. She wasn’t tall, but he had seen the muscles flexing beneath her compression shirt when they trained. Her hair was dark—almost black—and shaved on the sides. She kept the top portion longer but bound up in a tight braid. Alex thought she might have a pleasant face if she didn’t frown so much and her eyes didn’t seem so cold. The master sergeant could be friendly at times, but when she gave orders there was no doubt about following them.

  Echo Company retrieved their rucksacks and followed Gellar from the shuttle. Alex recognized the space station. He had spent time there following the incident with Vice President Loman Haley. There were times, especially at night, when the fear he felt in that encounter gripped him. The VP had him brought in for questioning, but it was Chief McKinna and Colonel Bixby that had betrayed Loman Haley. Alex had been forced to watch while they tortured the VP—and if not for Alex’s intervention, they would have killed him. Afterward, Alex had spent a few days resting in the medical bay before spending one brilliant afternoon with Nyx. The pleasantness of that day made him smile.

  “What are you grinning about?” Oggy sneered. “You act like you’ve never been off-world before.”