Resurgence (Redleg In Space Book 2) Page 2

  He examined the helmet as Ananna spoke. It was a black shell with no visor or viewport. It had a deep seam that started at the chin, ran over the crown, all the way to the nape of the neck. It was covered in short black studs, arranged in a hexagonal pattern, connected by small green lines.

  “A couple more questions, for you, Ann,” Zade said, looking at Ananna, whose eyebrows raised inquisitively. “How do I get it on? How do I see out of it? And what does it do?”

  “Ann,” she repeated, smiling at Zade. “I like that. To answer your questions, the first time a Groz puts on their helmet, they must be in their under suit. When the helmet nears the collar of the suit, it will open, allowing the individual to put the helmet on. Once the helmet has paired with the nanites, a simple thought is all that is required to open the helmet, or there is a release that can be triggered manually. One of the secrets to the Groz battle victories is that each helmet has centuries of martial knowledge and history stored within. As the helmet pairs with an individual, the knowledge is passed on, along with other knowledge and resources.”

  He looked at the helmet with new respect. It wasn’t quite sentient, but it wasn’t the useless hunk of Kevlar he had back on Earth either.

  “At my current processing capacity,” Ann continued, “I do not have access to information on what modifications the previous captain had made to the helmet, but I can tell you about the basic command information packet that it is equipped with it in standard circumstances.”

  At his nod, Ann dove into an explanation on the command packet. It was mostly focused on battlefield intelligence and communication. When the helmet was on, he would be able to see the vitals and ammo capacity for anyone on his crew. He would also be able to see the general status of the ship: hull integrity, fuel supply, ammunition, and shields. He had access to advanced communication package that allowed him to stay in contact with the ship, regardless of range. What fascinated him the most was that Ann would be able to make a copy of herself that would provide real-time situation updates, and help him process the information he was taking in when he wore the helmet. The command packet was the only one that had an onboard AI to help the wearer.

  “There is another living being in the hanger,” Ann said, interrupting all of the thoughts and questions Zade had. “It appears to be a female Xi’Ga. I suggest you stow this gear and deal with her before she starts poking around.”

  “It is probably best that they don’t know about you either,” he said, placing the items back in the safe. “Can you imitate a standard Unity ship AI?”

  Ann’s hologram disappeared and she answered his question in the affirmative. Her voice taking on the monotone, mindless sound of a standard ship AI. He hustled out of his quarters and into the cargo bay, where he rode the lift down to the ground. As soon as the lift stopped moving, he was face to face with his old captain.

  “We have to hide you somewhere on the planet,” Samix said, wrapping him in a hug. “You can’t leave on this ancient piece of shit. I talked to my father and he knows this ship probably can’t even make orbit, let alone do any interstellar travel. But he said he promised you a ship. ‘Not a good ship. Not even a working ship.’ He said I would forget about you soon enough, but I can’t let you die because of me.”

  She was talking so fast that he could barely even keep up with her train of thought. Zade pulled her into another hug to get her to stop talking but as soon as he released her, she started again.

  “Nobody even knows how to get this thing to fly. It was towed back and landed with a space tug. Scientists have been studying for years and they can’t even get the lights to turn on.”

  He chuckled, which stopped her from rambling on. He was feeling much more confident of his survival after meeting Ann, but he wasn’t going to spill that secret even to make her feel better.

  “First off, it’s nice to see you again. I wasn’t sure if I would before my deadline to leave the core expired. Second, the Unity was nice enough to put in a new drive, AI, and hydrogen scoop. I’ll jump to the first inhabited, second-tier system and look for work so that I can improve the rest of the ship. I’ll be fine.”

  “Are you as stupid as my father thinks you are?” she scolded, the worry in her eyes becoming anger. “He wants you dead, and he gets what he wants. He set it up to make this whole thing look like an accident. Your ship will crash getting out of the planet’s gravity well, and you would be blamed for not knowing how to fly a ship. Is that what you want?”

  “Samix, sometimes life deals you a shitty hand,” he said, gently taking her chin and turning her face so he could look into her eyes. “Whether you like it or not, you’ve got to play those cards. In the entirety of the Unity, you are one of the three people who even care about my well-being and I haven’t seen Jorloss or Axis since you guys left the ship. This is where our paths diverge. I need to get back to my people and you need to stay and lead yours. I will miss you.”

  The anger in her eyes had turned to full-blown fury yet she couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down her face.

  “You are such a jackass.”

  She punctuated her simple statement with a slap and stormed out of the hanger.

  Damn. Every good woman I’ve known has stormed out of my life on that exact same line.

  Zade watched her go before heading back onto the ship. As much as he wanted to keep her around, leaving was probably for the best for her. As the lift locked into place, Ann appeared.

  “Should I be jealous?” she asked, a smile on her face.

  “You are just fucking hilarious,” he said completely deadpan. “Let’s get a game plan. We only have three days before the chancellor’s deadline.”

  After finding out that Ann could run the whole ship at only one percent capacity, he headed to the command deck to look for a destination. The star maps on the Groz ship seemed to be significantly more intricate than the ones he had seen on the XES01. The impressive map glowed from a projector in the ceiling of the command deck. It was completely controllable and could be turned and manipulated by the most subtle movement from Zade.

  Ann laid out the different zones of Unity space from the information she had gathered. After getting the basic layout down, she highlighted all of the systems that contained the last known locations of other Groz ships. Figuring one was just as good as the next, Zade found the closest one to their location and decided it would be their first stop. The first jump would have to be done using Unity equipment, but Ann would quickly fire up the Groz technology once they were away from observation. After choosing the destination, Zade spent some time looking at the systems in the contested zone. There were hundreds of thousands of systems that divided the two galactic superpowers, and Earth was in one of them. Realizing the futility of trying to visually identify Earth in the millions of planets, he turned his attention to preparing for the trip.

  With a destination chosen, he set to using his credits to outfit the ship. Zade ordered a ten-person life support pack, which included water and food. Luckily, the ship had enough fuel to make one jump, so he didn’t have to spend any credits on that. The last things he bought were more AI data cores. Each one could bring Ann’s capacity up by one percent, and, although she could run on just one percent, he wanted to improve her as much as he could before they headed out on their own. After other necessary purchases, he could only afford three cores.

  Ann finalized the details on all of the deliveries and ensured him they would be loaded in the cargo bay well before take-off. He took one more opportunity to gather things from the XES01 by sending a transport down to get his workout equipment. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to get anything off the ship but figured the AI would hook him up with what he could. The driver of the transport had instructions to talk directly with Mur. Mur would know exactly what he could give him while still being within the bounds of any restrictions.

  All the preparations were in the works and it was getting late. Zade headed to his cabin for some sleep. It was usual
ly hard for him to knock out in an unfamiliar place, but as taxing as the day had been, he didn’t think he would have a hard time falling asleep. Just as he entered his cabin, Ann appeared.

  “You should sleep with the helmet on,” she said as the invisible door to the safe slid open. “It will need time to pair with you.”

  “I thought you said we needed to be secure before I paired with the equipment.”

  “That would be the best course of action, but I don’t see a risk that would prevent you from doing it now. I will seal the ship so no one can disturb you. The sooner you are paired with the helmet, the better.”

  “How long will I be out?” he asked.

  “It is hard to tell. It all depends on how difficult it is for the helmet to pair with your nanites and your physical body.”

  “As long as there is no danger to me and we won’t miss our take-off, I’ll do it.”

  “There is no danger to you. The worst that will happen is the helmet will reject you, and you will not be able to utilize it to its fullest. As for leaving, I will take care of take-off procedures and jumping to the site you identified if you are not awake.”

  Satisfied that there was nothing else for him to do while he waited for supplies to be delivered, he stripped off the uniform from the XES01 and put on the much more form-fitting matte black one from the Ananna. Although it looked like an under suit worn on any other ship, Zade noticed a huge difference as soon as he put it on. It molded to fit his body. Once it had finished, he could hardly feel it. Unlike the slight pressure and restriction that he remembered from wearing any kind of compression gear, this suit was almost unnoticeable.

  Sitting on the edge of the bed in his quarters, he took his newly acquired combat helmet and turned it over in his hands, examining every inch of the armor. It’s solid black shell with green accents still had him confused. Although the structure looked like it was strong enough to protect him, it wasn’t functional without some way to see out of it.

  With a confused shrug, he drew the helmet towards his face. As the edge of the helmet touched the collar on his suit, there was a click and the helmet swung open. The vertical seam he had seen on the outside was the split point. Zade took one last deep breath, thanked the stars he wasn’t claustrophobic, and placed his head in the device and pressed it closed. He was surrounded by darkness, but he could feel the helmet shifting to fit comfortably around his head.

  Unsure of how long the pairing process would take, he swung his legs onto his bunk and laid back. As he laid, surrounded by darkness, alone with just his thoughts to keep him company, he began to evaluate his current situation. The events of his life, starting with his last mission in Afghanistan, began rolling through his head. Although that day had only been months ago, it felt like lifetimes had passed since he had been brought on as a part of Samix’s crew. As events played through his mind, he realized, much to his distaste, he was nothing more than a victim of circumstance. He hadn’t made any decisions that had barred him from getting back to Earth, which also meant he didn’t have any decisions to regret.

  Not one to wallow in the past, he turned his mind to what his future would hold. He realized that he had become the de facto protector of his home world, but he didn’t have a way to carry out his new purpose. The contested zone was absolutely massive, and due to equipment malfunctions, the XES01 never got the coordinates of Earth when they left. It seemed like his task would be impossible. It was a hard pill to swallow, but he had to come to terms with the fact that he may never make it back. In his moment of dark realization, the words of one of his army mentors came back to him.

  “A soldier’s situation may change, but his character never will. A good warrior, who fights for the right reasons, will always try to do the right thing regardless of how bad their situation is. A lazy, self-centered soldier will never be happy with their circumstance, and will always make the decision that will benefit themself the most. Have confidence in the former, but never trust the latter,” Captain Henry had said during one of his professional development sessions when Zade was still a brand-new butter bar.

  The advice from Captain Henry had stuck with him throughout his career, proving to be true more times than not. He could never stop looking for Earth, but along the way, he decided that he would help out those that needed it. Zade was a fighter who protected those who couldn’t protect themselves. Just because his battlefield had changed from the Middle East to space didn’t mean his character changed.

  As he worked through his personal crisis, the inside of his helmet began to glow the same green that accented every other black surface in the ship. Once the glow became too bright to ignore, it coalesced into hieroglyphs and symbols on the inside of the helmet. Zade couldn’t decipher them. Instead, he closed his eyes and dozed off.

  His sleep was not a restful one. He spent the whole night in dreams that felt lucid, and continually shifted from one to the next. His mind would jump from a childhood memory to a scene that he had never experienced and back again like it was flipping between two sections of a textbook. It felt as though his mind was trying to cement a connection between the passages.

  He was sitting on his Huffy waiting for his friends to finish the ramp they had constructed in the parking lot of their local church. The ramp was made of old Christmas play props that the church had stacked around their dumpster after cleaning out the basement. Like any boys, they had perfected bike riding long before engineering. With one last correction, Russell, his best friend in school, gave him a thumbs up. With one last tug on his chin strap, young Zade began furiously pumping the pedals, gaining speed as he approached the ramp. The dream was so lifelike he could feel the wind on his face as he approached. He crouched down as his tires hit the ramp. He heard two grotesque pops that made his stomach flip. The first was the sound of the ramp snapping under his weight. The bike stopped suddenly, sending him over the handlebars. The second pop was the sound of his left forearm snapping as he tried to catch himself and prevent his head from slapping into the pavement.

  After impact, he rolled onto his back and cradled arm to his chest. At first, there was no pain, but he was confused as to why he couldn’t leverage himself up to make a second attempt. The pain didn’t start until he saw his disfigured limb pointing at an unnatural angle. As his adrenaline disappeared, the pain started in earnest. It was the worst pain he had ever felt in his young life, bad enough to make him pass out. But, before he did, the scene changed.

  He had gone from laying in an empty parking lot with his friends crowded around him to standing in some type of arena. The entire scene was unfamiliar to him. Everything, from the red and orange sky to the strange metal walls that stood just out of reach, looked foreign. He looked to his body for clues. His entire body was covered in the same matte black under suit he had donned before going to sleep, and the weights in his hands were semi-blunted tomahawks. Gleaning no information on his situation from his appearance, he looked to the individual standing at the other end of the arena. The other person was wearing attire exactly like his, except he was holding a shield and a sword instead of axes. The only thing that was uncovered was the person’s head. No matter how hard he tried or focused, he couldn’t see what the other looked like.

  “Begin,” boomed a voice from somewhere off to his right.

  As if by some unknown reflex, his body sprang forward at the announcer’s clipped command. Just as he had, his opponent sprang forward, racing to meet him in the middle of the arena. His body moved in completely foreign ways once he met the shield of his opponent, but something about it felt familiar. His heavy downward chop was met by the metal of the shield. Undeterred, he quickly flicked his wrist, spinning his weapon so the spike on the back of it was behind the top edge of the shield. As he yanked his weapon back towards him in an attempt to open the guard of the person fighting him, he used his second axe to block a blow. Somehow, he knew that the sword was much faster and versatile than his axes, so he began circling his opponent towards
their shield side.

  The combatants traded blows for what felt like a lifetime. Circling, striking, and exploiting weaknesses in the other’s forms. Zade thought he had the upper hand, but in his cockiness, he made a mistake and a slash caught his left arm. It broke immediately. The pain was spectacular, exactly like he remembered from his childhood. It caused him to drop one of his weapons and tuck his wounded limb to his chest. He fought on, losing ground as he did. Finally, a boot to the chest sent him sprawling. A horn sounded, signaling the end of the match and his dreamscape changed again.

  The menacing metal arena had been replaced by the unforgiving mountains of Afghanistan. Only seconds into the memory and he knew exactly what was about to happen. It was a memory that had haunted his dreams since it had happened years ago. That day in the market was a day of firsts. It was his first deployment, his first contact with enemies, the first time he had lost a soldier, and the first time he had been wounded.

  His team was doing a presence patrol in a local bazar. The dust in the air was thick from so many footsteps stirring it up. He could remember the pungent aroma of so many bodies being pressed together in the August sun. Just as he checked his watch to make sure he wasn’t late for pickup, he heard one of his men call out contact. The world stood still as he looked up and identified the tell-tale corkscrew of smoke from the RPG that was heading directly towards him and his men.