Masoul (Harmony War Series Book 2) (8 page)

              Mark thought about saying some flippant, trying to throw her off of her line of questioning. He looked at her and her curious eyes.

              She smiled and touched his face. There was comfort in those eyes and Mark felt his own heart start beating faster being around her.

              He smiled and then sighed.

              “Tyler and I are orphans. We’re brothers, but we didn’t start out that way. I first met Tyler when he was getting beaten up in a closet because the other kids saw he was different and picked on him. As you know Tyler and I are taller than average. People said that we were kicked out of the towers and all kids of shit. Kids are pretty vicious,” Mark said, his eyes unfocusing as Lucille just sat there, waiting and listening.

              “I stepped in, gave those kids a good ass kicking. Tyler helped me out, I’d charged in head first and I nearly ended up on the floor with him. At first I shook off his thanks and went our separate ways,” Mark laughed.

              “Though we got into too many fights and at one time liked the same girl, that was *interesting*.”

              Lucille poked him, her eyes thinning as she frowned.

              Mark kissed her, getting her smile back.

              “She didn’t go for any of us and she got her boyfriend to beat up the two Tower Trash. That was the worst beating I had ever been given as a kid. Tyler as well,” Mark rubbed a scar on his ribs absently.

              “So what, did you become brothers then?” She asked.

              “We were like seven at the time. We didn’t know what the hell was going on. Though we made sure that we were sent to the same places. We looked out for one another. After that beating we started training, doing everything we could to get bigger, stronger and learn how to fight other kids. Gave one another a few scars just from toussling. When we were eight people no longer screwed with us. We were given space. It was the day before we were to pick our last names when we decided to call ourselves Victors,” Mark shook his head.

              “What?”

              “We were so punch drunk from fighting one another that we were just spouting random crap. The next day we were both tired as hell, when they asked me for my last name I gave Victor without thinking. Tyler heard and copied. Big Ole fluke, but it was sealed, we were brothers.”

              “Classy,” Lucille laughed,

              “Maybe not classy, but the best mistake I’ve made so far,” Mark smiled.

              “So what about afterwards?”

              Mark took a moment before continuing. “We turned eight and we were taller than most kids that were eleven. Even the adults in the orphanage started taking interest,” Mark’s face turned cold and hard. “They might be working for the government but they were from the slums. Everyone *hates *people from the towers. I found Tyler beaten up in the study room, one of the adults had turned their head and let it happen. From then on we fought *anyone *that came at us. The kids, we could handle. Adults? They had batons and a lifetime of hate.”

              “What happened?” Lucille asked softly.

              “We had to escape, to get free of it all. Out in the slums wearing a mask and goggles, your anonymous. We wanted to be anonymous. Tyler and I planned for months before escaping. We ran into four slavers. Our freedom was about to get cut short when Quentin Richter, the leader of the Westerly Three Complex Crew helped us. He gave us weapons and told us to come and see him for a job if we wanted it,” Mark shook his head and looked at Lucille. “Tyler wanted to go right away. Took him a few months to convince me.”

              “So you were part of the Westerly Three Complex Crew at nine?” Lucille asked.

              “Yeah, they trained me up, Richter had been a trooper with Nerva. I went from being able to beat people a few years older than me, to those that were twice my age. Tyler was a damn good shot. We found a home among the enforcers and killers of the crew,” Mark said.

              “Wow, you must care a lot for Tyler,” Lucille said.

              “Well he is my brother, even if it was a fluke at the start of it all,” Mark smiled.

              Lucille hugged him.

              “What’s this for?” Mark asked, wrapping his arms around her.

              She pulled back a bit, her eyes watery.

              “You’ve had such a hard life already and you’re just going to go charging into fight after fight while your here. It scares me that you won’t be coming back,” She said.

              “Come here babe, I’ll do everything in my power to come back to you, if you want me to,” Mark said, pulling her to him.

              “You better,” She said, her voice shaky with emotion.

              Mark kissed the top of her head as she pulled him tight.

              After a few minutes she reached up and kissed him.

              “That’s the first time you’ve said that,” She said with a smile, wiping her eyes.

              “What?”

              “Babe,” Lucille kissed Mark. “I like it.”

Chapter 9

             
Tower

             
Earth, Sol System

             
5/3206

              Dalia rushed in Nivad’s office, and kicked the door shut as she flicked items from her paper onto the various view screens.

              The view of mega city fell away as the windows automatically polarized.

              Nivad’s eyes flicked to the view screen. One showed a space map. One system was highlighted in red, and the other showed a report from Masoul Prime.

              “We just got a report from our person on Masoul. It looks like they’re going to blow up the cryopod bunkers. They also seem confident that they are going to be able to damage
Strike
station,” Dalia said.

              Nivad would have killed most others on the spot for charging into his office.

              Instead, his mind worked with the problem in front of him. He looked to balance the universe - now someone was messing with his games, and throwing everything into chaos.

              “What else?” Nivad asked. He made sure he knew everything before he acted.

              “They reported that the religious group was much more extensive than they first thought. They think that the group is linked to other systems. They have weaponry that he would have found if it was actually made on the planet. He also reports that they expect ‘tools’ to help with their rebellion on an incoming freighter,” Dalia said, as she looked up from her surface.

              “Activate our agents. I want to know more about this group, and which other systems they might come from. Trace the freighter, and see if you can see where they’re making weapons,” Nivad said, as his face tightened and he clasped his hands together. Anger rippled through him, honest-to-god anger. He hadn’t felt it in ages. He felt its seduction to cause pain, and wreak havoc.

              He restrained his emotions, and knew how it would feel once he crushed Masoul and all those that tried to go against him.

               “Have the Carrier
Fearless
leave port. Every hour, I want another carrier to act as if they are moving to another system. We’ll say that they’re on a training exercise. Write something up to the affect, and make it look like we’ve been planning this for months. I’m guessing that there is no way to stop them from blowing up the bunkers,” Nivad said as he looked to Dalia, who gave him a terse nod.

              “Very well, draft a letter to the Masoul partnership. Also, pull up our old files on colonization. We best have a group of people from somewhere ready to fill their positions. Masoul keeps the sphere flying. Removing it will bring instability to the rest of the sphere. I want to have the latest numbers on the EMF’s refueling stations,” Nivad said. He wanted to prepare for every eventuality. The refuelling stations’ locations were top secret. They were only used in emergencies. It spoke to the trust Nivad had in Dalia’s assessment to go that far. The stations were only used if the normal fueling systems were in revolt.

              He saw a flash of fear in Dalia’s eyes. The chaos that would be brought on with Masoul’s revolt was palpable.

              “I will see to it,” she said. Her fear was replaced again with her neutral look of professional spymaster.

              “Do keep me updated if anything else happens.”

              “Of course, sir,” she said, as she bowed her head slightly to Nivad before she rushed out of the room.

Chapter 10

             
Landing City

             
Masoul Actual, Masoul System

             
5/3206

              Moretti had never taken any chances. When he joined the defenders of Harmony, he didn’t pull in any of his agents to back him up. Instead, he found the kind of people that would be swayed by this kind of crap. Anyone above and below him thought he was just another mindless fuck that could be of use to the cause. He pulled people together for that fact.

              They were all Chosen - the fighters that upheld Harmony’s edicts.

              He laughed with his people as he clicked the detonator. The towers rumbled as the cryo bunkers were turned into nothingness.

              Inside, Moretti winced with every shake. He didn’t care about the innocents that would be swept up in this fight. While he was an operative for Nivad, his cover was a middling corporation officer. He knew what kind of effect blowing up the bunkers would have on the system, and conglomerate, that owned it. The whole sphere could be thrown into chaos. Freighter fuel kept the universe moving. If fuel freighters stopped travelling, it would take a few years to hit. But the rest of the sphere would feel the pinch for a number of years.

              They would turn to manufacturing their own fuel, or to importing it at an increased cost. That kind of economics would change the entire EHC economy.

              He looked over the news channels. The others bragged and yelled in the warehouse.

              The news people were going over the explosions. Everyone was in a panic, and people were confused as to why the bunkers were targeted.

              A few news reporters were spouting Harmony lines. Moretti had no idea that the religion went that far.

              It was meaningless. Dalia heard his report.
Fearless
was moving away from
Strike
Station. He could see it on the inter-system network.

              “Holy fuck!” he said.

              “What is it, boss?” one of the others looked over and asked.

              “They just blew up
Strike
station!” Moretti said. He forgot who he was supposed to be for a second.

              Others crowded around, and took his fear for shock.

              He replayed the scene, and the others’ yells came out even louder than before. Flame came from the center of the station, and spread out in a ripple. The corridors served to focus the blast, and opened right into the hulls of the connected EMF carriers.

              The station’s fire was gone as soon as it started. It fell apart, and started turning. The carriers attached to it were lifeless hulks, ripped into thousands of pieces.

             
Fearless
moved out of its port twelve minutes ago. The corridor it had been attached to blew out with fire and debris, into the unarmored side of the hull.

              It vented atmosphere, and its engines were dead as it went ballistic.

              Harmony just killed nearly seven hundred thousand EMF personnel.

Chapter 11

             
Tower

             
Earth, Sol System

             
5/3206

              Nivad watched the same scene as Moretti. He looked on with cool indifference. His plans were disrupted, and he would have his revenge. But it was time to put his back-up plan into motion.

              “If the carrier
Fearless
is capable of it, I want them to get their people in cryo. I want all shipping to Masoul cancelled immediately.
Fearless
and
Reclaimer
are to meet up and be ready for operations in Masoul,” Nivad said.

              “Yes, sir,” Dalia said, as she tapped out orders on her surface.

Chapter 12

             
EMFC Reclaimer

             
Earth, Sol System

             
5/3206

              It didn’t take Mark long to find out what was going on in Masoul.

              He didn’t really believe everything. When Nerva said something happened in Masoul and they were leaving, everything moved faster than he thought possible.

              That fell away with the shock of seeing
Strike
Station get devoured in flames and destruction. Four carriers were destroyed outright, and
Fearless
looked like it was barely functional.

              Mark sent it to the others in his section.

              He felt numb as he kept going through the information. He couldn’t believe it. Sure, Nerva told them – but it was much different when he saw the results. It brought reality to Nerva’s words.