Star Force: Ghostblade (SF67) (2 page)

She just couldn’t get past that. Sophia felt so much
of a connection to this world that she didn’t know how she could ever leave it,
and scribbled some meaningless doodles in the dust to her left as the sun
finally dipped below the horizon. The stars took over prominence within the
sky, added to by the orbital habitats gleaming alongside them. They were mere
specs from her point of view, for they were situated high up around the tiny
world, but several starports were much larger when visible, though at the moment
none were within sight range.

They’d be orbiting around soon enough, but for the
moment it was just the stars and the lights of the surrounding cities acting as
luminous beacons within the darkness. The ground beneath Sophia was covered in
shadows, but even the lighted regions were dim, making her feel the isolation
even more. If her own world felt like this, how would one months away from here
feel?

She didn’t know, and it bothered her right up until
the first low oxygen warning pinged inside her helmet. Sophia checked the
levels and saw that she still had over 3 hours left, but she knew better than
to flirt with that deadline and picked herself up off the ground, accidentally
throwing her body into a slight jump in the low gravity. She’d lived her entire
life on this rock, but had always known normal levels within the colonies,
making her home feel yet even more foreign to her, despite the pangs of
nostalgia she was getting just looking off into the distance.

That was when she knew she couldn’t do it. She
couldn’t just walk away from this place one day heading off into the unknown,
so as she headed back over the kilometer or so that she’d walked from the
external gate she tried to figure out what the best option she had was. When
she got into the airlock and the normal gravity settled her body her mind
wasn’t dissuaded. This was her home and she couldn’t just abandon it, but in a
few years’ time it was going to be filled with Clan Thunderfist. The location
might be the same, but without her fellow Clan members it still wouldn’t be
home.

“Have a nice walk?” the tech who helped her out of her
envirosuit asked as she came through the airlock and disconnected her helmet.

“Did more sitting than walking…and no, not really.”

“Something wrong?” he said, taking the head piece and
setting it on a side table before coming back to help Sophia unbutton the
armored carapace covering her body.

“I hate this evacuation plan.”

“You’re not the only one with misgivings,” he assured
her, “but you can’t argue that it’s a big challenge.”

“It’s the throwing away what we’ve got here that’s the
problem.”

“Kind of has to happen if you want a clean slate.”

“Our slate is fine as is,” she said, getting out of
the torso section. “I can get the rest.”

“Suit yourself,” he said, carrying the section over
and sitting it next to the helmet in front of a row of booths that had dozens
of other suits. “Are you going to try and get transferred to Earth?”

“No.
Arwen
is my home.”

The man frowned. “You’re not thinking of jumping Clans
are you?”

“Never,” she said firmly.

“You think Oni is making a mistake?”

“I don’t know. She’s never steered us wrong before, I
just can’t shake this bad feeling.”

“You’ve still got a few years to work it out.”

“No,” Sophia said, pulling her thin leg out of her
right extended boot. “I’m not waiting. I’m going to volunteer to go now.”

“Why? If you don’t want to leave…”

“Because if I go now I’ll still have a home to come
back to. If I wait, I’ll be walking away for good, and I just can’t bring
myself to do that.”

“It’s a long trip out there.”

“I know, but I’ll be able to come back at least once.”

“And won’t have to leave facing an unknown future?”

“Something like that. I also realized that I can’t
spent the next two years waiting to find out. I’ll drive myself nuts in the
meantime.”

“What’s your specialty?”

“Software engineer.”

“Not sure they’ll have too many slots for that open
right now.”

“I’ve got construction as an auxiliary skillset, along
with six others. I’ll fill some slot they need.”

“Always on the move,” he commented, accepting the last
pieces of the envirosuit from her.

“This time literally,” she said, friendly waving him
goodbye as she walked out of the station and back into the rest of the colony.

2

October 15, 2783

Frost System
(Bsidd Region)

Flake

Sophia rode on a
Dragon
-class
dropship along with over 200 other Snowstorms down from the cargo jumpship
watching the view via a series of wall-mounted displays and getting a view of
their new homeworld as they dipped into the atmosphere. The moon was huge and
covered in pinks and greens, for the natural foliage seemed to predominate in
those two colors. There were a pair of ice caps on either pole and long streaks
of blue that made up the planet’s narrow oceans that almost connected the two,
bracketed by high mountain ranges easily visible from orbit.

The rest of the planet was more or less flat and
covered with forest as far as Sophia could see. She’d run through the
reconnaissance reports earlier, but seeing it here now, in person, was an
entirely different experience. There was so much open space that it literally
felt mindboggling, and for the first time since she’d volunteered for and
acquired an advance slot on a construction crew did she start to wonder if Oni
really did know what she was doing by orchestrating this move.

And the planet, or rather moon…she wasn’t going to get
used to thinking of it as such since it was way bigger than
Arwen
…had
been given a proper Clan name of ‘flake’ rather than one assigned prior to
their acquisition of the system. In fact, all the planets/moons were getting
fitting names, which was another sign that this was indeed going to become home
as soon as they set down proper roots…which she was seeing none of from orbit.

There weren’t any cities whatsoever, and since her
volunteering had occurred prior to any major construction reports getting back
to Sol she didn’t know where they were actually heading. When the dropship
decelerated and hit the thick lower atmosphere she was surprised to see them
dart off across the water, leaving the land behind entirely and her wondering
if her Clan had started with an aquatic colony. That would be very odd if they
did, but at this point she and the others were just along for the ride and
would have to wait and see.

About 20 minutes later a dot appeared on the watery
horizon that eventually grew into a large island, on top of which a few spires
were visible. When they got closer Sophia could also see a large structure
jotting off the side and into the ocean, which she recognized as an aquatics
facility. Smiling, she realized that for a startup this was in fact the perfect
location, giving all aspects of the Snowstorms a chance to get up and running
immediately.

As the dropship crossed over the wide beaches and into
the vast interior it flew through a forest of pink with only a few dots of
green here and there. Several more minutes and they finally came to an
artificial clearing and landed on a dirt field, with instructions for the
passengers to debark immediately. Sophia got up out of her seat with the others
and moved out, having no personal belongings with her. As an advance team they
couldn’t be burdened with extra cargo and wouldn’t have personal quarters,
rather being bunked in a communal facility that would rotate people in and out.

She’d have a room, but a tiny one. How long it would
be hers she didn’t know, but as more people came in she expected to get moved
around so she and the others would be living off the equipment rooms rather
than their own collections of clothing and accoutrements.

A trio of hovering vehicles stood waiting for them
outside the dropship with the passengers splitting up for them as instructed.
Sophia got in the line for the second one, noticing the dozens of other
dropships and transports spread out on the field around them…and the proper
spaceport beyond that was full of ships on the tarmac. This dirt extension had
obviously been made recently, suggesting that her Clan was serious about
getting this startup going as fast as possible, and she found herself beginning
to share in that urgency and a bit of the excitement that seemed to be
permeating the air.

The gravity on the planet was a bit heavy, but as soon
as she stepped into the vehicle the artificial gravity took over and returned
the feel of her legs to normal. She found a seat along with the others and
before long the ‘bus’ was on its way, taking them to who knew where given the
fact that there were no windows and only a panel showing what the drivers saw.
They were in a forward compartment while everyone else was in the back,
protected behind decently thick plating, as was standard for all Clan Snowstorm
vehicles.

The ground transport moved off through the grid and
eventually came to the forest edge, following a dirt road between the pink
trees until they gained altitude a few kilometers later to overshoot a trio of
construction mechs that were actively adding to the road. Sophia’s vehicle
skimmed the treetops, flying the rest of the way out to a small patch of forest
carved out of the mass of trees. There they found another dirt landing field
settled up next to piles of crates and a few prefab structures.

When she exited the vehicle there was a processing
station, so everyone got in line and waited their turn. When Sophia got to the
station that was little more than an archway with a holographic terminal
attached, her ID was confirmed and the attendant gave her a designator chip,
then pointed in the direction she needed to go. With that being all the
handholding that was going to happen, the tech walked in that general direction
while fingering the chip and activating the holographic interface.

Watching to make sure she didn’t get run over or
stepped on by some of the few mechs moving around, she ran through the
instructions and saw that she’d been assigned to an excavation team that was
carving out the bedrock at this site in order to establish the substructure of
a mining station. She was going to be part of the material relocation rather
than the actual digging, which meant she got to play with all the dirt and rock
that came up.

Finding an exact location that she was supposed to
report to, Sophia got her bearings and began jogging towards one of the distant
prefab buildings, feeling her shoes sink into a few patches of mud enough that
it came up to her ankles. One time she lost her shoe entirely, having to stop
and go back for it. Luckily she hadn’t been wearing any socks, otherwise they
would have been dirty as hell by now.

She slipped the shoe on and tried to do a better job
of navigating around the muddiest spots, but with the trees having been
recently cleared away there was no grass or moss or anything else to stand on
until she got to her destination and stepped up onto civilization in the form
of ground plates looking like huge, flat
legos
that
had been connected together to create a solid base on which the building and
several crate stacks had been placed.

Sophia jogged across it, leaving muddy footprints that
were far smaller than the ones the mechs had left, and was waved over by a
woman standing near the entrance.

“About time you guys got here,” she said, seeing a few
more people trailing behind Sophia. “We’re half an hour behind schedule
already, and that means the diggers have to wait until we clear out their
transition piles before they can continue.”

“Where do you need me?” Sophia asked, handing her chip
to the handler so she could scan it and read her file on a datapad.

“Equipment room. Get into a work suit and grab a bite
to eat. We’re going to be pulling some long hours until we get more hands on
site.”

“Got it,” Sophia said as she entered through the small
doorway and went inside, stopping to pull off her shoes and go barefoot to keep
from spreading mud on the mostly clean floor. She followed the hallway until
she got to the first intersection, taking a right and heading for the equipment
room that was based on a standard design that she was familiar with, for she’d
lived in one of these structures before during training exercises.

She padded her way into the elongated bay and dumped
her shoes in a cleansing bin where they’d be recycled into the communal closet,
which she now walked over to and pulled out the items in her size, then took
them over to a personal booth and shut herself inside. She stripped down and
hopped in the shower, cleaning off all the mud before stepping into her clean
clothes, first a set of underwear, then a thin shirt and shorts. From there she
left her station and ran barefooted over to a nearby room that had a number of
prepackaged foodstuffs. She grabbed and ate several quickly, finishing off with
a bottle of water before heading back to her booth.

She used the restroom inside then pulled on her
armorish
clothing. It was entirely flexible, but sealed
against the outside environment from the neck down if need be. She left the
gloves and helmet back on the racks, knowing just how warm it was outside.
Snugging up the boots to fit the exact size of her feet and ankles, Sophia
grabbed her ID chip and put it in a concealed pocket, then headed for the
lounge/information center that was only a few running strides down the short
hall.

“Good to go,” she reported to the woman there.

“Take number 6 and get busy loading with these two.”

“Let’s get to it,” she said, glancing at the two men
who got up out of their seats to join her. “I’m Sophia Brent.”

“Nathan
Pergusson
,” one
said, giving her a slight nod.

“Jarod
Grembly
. Looks like
we’re driving. Try not to ding the rim.”

“No promises,” she said with a smile as the three of
them walked off and eventually out of what would be their home for the next few
days at minimum. Outside there was a small parking lot nearby, in which there
was a lot of open air cargo trucks and a handful of excavation mechs. She found
the one with a big number 6 on it and climbed up the handholds on the right leg
while the two men went to their trucks.

“Been a while,” Sophia said to herself as she got past
the waist on the huge mech and climbed inside the cockpit that was located on
the chest between two huge arms. It was open to the air save for a thin layer
of transparent material. Had this been a military variety that would never have
happened, but given that this mech had no weapons or armor it was best to keep
it as functional as possible, with its designed geared towards channeling all
functionality towards earthmoving.

Sophia slid into the seat and strapped herself in, for
this variety didn’t have artificial gravity. It was a big, beefy workhorse that
stood twice as tall as a
thor
, with it literally
swallowing Sophia up inside its chest cavity.

“Ok, big guy. Let’s get to work,” she said, powering
up the mech and getting a
comm
channel from one of
the trucks. She opened it and keyed to have all transmissions from that source automatically
routed through to her cockpit, then did the same with the other truck.

“You ready, sexy?”

“So that’s how it’s going to be?” she asked
humorously.

“All we have time for, unfortunately.”

“Awfully confident…mech checks out. I’m good to go.”

“Take the lead.”

Sophia blew out a breath and triggered the computer-controlled
movements to begin walking the bipedal giant forward. The first few steps were
jerky, but once a little momentum was built up it traveled smoothly with her
turning on a heading towards the mountains of material next to the dig site
about two kilometers off. She walked it over there, seeing not a single other
mech in action, but noticing the drilling spigots silent as they held position
over some of the mounds.

Had everything been up and running they would have
been pouring material out for her and others to pick up and load into the
trucks, and while they were silent that meant no digging was taking place on
the other side in the pit.

“Time to get this show moving,” she said, walking up
to the nearest mound and laying a waypoint down for where she wanted her trucks
to position. The second one hung back, but the first one came up and sat square
on the spot while Sophia positioned the mech in between the vehicle and the
mound.

She shoved the left arm into the dirt/rock mix and
activated the rotary claws which fed the loose material into a conveyor that
ran through the shoulders of the mech, over her cockpit, and down to the other
arm. Sophia set it in the bowl-like truck bed and began pouring material into
the deep bucket, seeing the hovering vehicle bob a bit with the extra weight
being added.

Using a hand control on the left, she swiped the
receptacle across the nearest part of the mound in a line, then reversed
direction for another before repositioning her giant metallic feet half a step
closer as the material was being eaten up at a fast rate. The truck, however,
was bigger than the mech, though only half as tall. It stretched out in a long
rectangular barge style, and it took a fair amount of time for Sophia to fill
up half of it.

At that point the drilling spigots began working
again, but only two of them. They began adding material to an empty slot two
down from where she was along with an almost full pile, anticipating that there
would be more room opening up shortly so they could begin low scale continuous
digging operations. That meant they could only operate as quickly as Sophia
could move the material out, so she was the pace setter as long as her pair of
trucks could keep up with her.

Eventually the first was filled and it signaled to her
with a departure ping. Sophia shut down the feeds and lifted the arm up and out
of the way, then pinged the truck back that it was clear. It floated off
slowly, carrying a huge load, with the empty one sliding in right behind it to
waste no time. Sophia began loading it immediately while the first truck headed
for the forest edge where it lifted up over the treetops and carried the
material several kilometers away to another clearing that a pair of mechs were
in the process of expanding upon. Infantry units were in play and visible on
the construction version of a battlemap, locating and chasing off any wildlife
in the area so they wouldn’t get chopped to bits in the clearing process.