MGIS 5 - Gathering Strength - Chapter 9

Chapter 9

You would think that with as many species as there are in the Hegemony, we’d stop judging people based on simple differences like size or gender.

The Boghet are tiny by comparison to everyone save the Dwerg, and both species are infamous for just how sturdy they are. But people still underestimate them.

I suppose it is one of the universal truths though. Stupidity, like death and taxes, is inevitable.

~Belladonna Razorwing, after action report.

From Desmond’s experience, data tablets were sturdy little things. He’d dropped, kicked, and accidentally thrown his around the suite during his time as a cadet and not seen a single scratch on it. Based on what was left of the one in his hand, it was about a third of the unit and he glanced at Lila questioningly.

“I looked. No sign of the other pieces under the ashes. I did find footprints though, tucked up close to the wall where the falling ash had a hard time getting into them. I took pictures with my helmet camera,” Lila explained in a low voice and Desmond nodded. As he watched her, Desmond saw Lila’s eyes dart to the cliff walls again and he had a thought, then acted on it immediately.

“My Arsenal, rally up! We are heading back, double time. No need to let the Anchor team rub it in our faces by being late,” Desmond barked and the girls rushed to assume formation around him.

As they settled into formation, Desmond pulled one of the dense, mana-sealed pouches out of his rig and slipped the fragment of tablet into it. He’d taken to carrying them for if he found small and precious resources, like the Rift-made precious metals or gemstones. The pouch would block signals going in and out, both mana and electrical. So it would serve to contain the bit of tech until he got it back to the Fist.

Once the pouch was closed up, Desmond dropped it into his dump pouch on his thigh, making the gesture as innocuous as he could to appear like he was shuffling magazines around on his gear.

Chloe caught his eye and quirked an eyebrow in question. He knew he’d need to explain, given that he’d given one of the series of codes that they had come up with to up radio security and he gave her a slow nod before looking to Sasha.

The Hyreh-Taari girl was fiddling with the sensor on her thigh with one hand while the other held her auto-shotgun couched on her hip, but he noted that Sasha’s eyes were skimming the ridgeline rather than looking at what she was doing.

“Helm, comms are scrambled and secure. You’ll hear a triple beep if someone speaks on the normal lines,” Sasha said a moment later and he smiled as they moved out.

“What encryption did you use?” he asked as they entered the crevasse leading back at a jog.

“They’d need a print copy of your favorite book and then feed it into a very old style of cypher decoder to get through it. If you think Union of Hands equipment is hard to get hold of, imagine how hard outdated Union of Hands tech is.” Sasha replied with a proud smirk and Desmond blinked in surprise.

“How?”

“Was stored on my internal drive when shit went down,” Sasha answered quickly. “I’d stripped out the programming on a decoder with the intent of trying to fix and sell it, but I lost the hardware when they evacuated us. To the point, it’s secure enough that it’ll take them far too long to figure it out. What’s going on?”

Desmond nodded and quickly reeled off what Lila had relayed to him as well as what she’d found. There were mixed curses and hisses of surprise from the three girls who weren’t aware yet, and Lila added on a bit more.

“Now that we are on secured comms rather than standard Hegemony military lines, I saw marks on the walls too that showed someone having climbed the cliffs. I don’t know if they are up there or how long ago they did, but someone was back in that nook, left footprints and trash, then went up the cliff.”

“Long enough that we didn’t see footprints down here, but with the ash fall, that could be bare hours. Good call on the code, Helm,” Chloe added on. “I am so glad we came up with those too.”

“Told you they’d be useful,” Sasha said with a snort and a roll of her eyes. “Decoding keys for the secured lines the military use are hard to come by, but even my foster-sisters had a set. Outdated ones but still would work more than half the time on station security. Having duress signals saved Dakota’s life at least three times that I remember as well.”

“I never doubted you, Sword,” Chloe replied gently. “I just hadn’t expected to need them so soon.”

“Yeah, well when station security ignores a murder in their detainment cells and then tries to bury it, you cover your ass however you can. Stars and Void, I hoped that I was being paranoid, but I was wrong,” Sasha said.

They dropped into silence then as they hurried along, following the route Desmond had marked for them. By only marking the branches they took or finished, it was simple enough to find their way back by taking unmarked paths opposite the marks.

While he jogged along, spike rifle held in the low read, Desmond turned their situation over in his mind. The duress code he’d used was addressing them as ‘my arsenal’ rather than just ‘arsenal,’ and he’d indicated the most likely direction of threat as ‘up’ with the rally call. It was a very simple system Sasha had made them memorize and it had been bare days since they’d done that.

Fate’s squeaky toy indeed, Desmond thought with a roll of the eyes. We need more information.

“Dagger, you up to taking a peek?” Desmond asked as they angled over another open space and Desmond had to quickstep to avoid landing in one of the dead corpses of the Rift monsters.

“Always, Helm.” Was her reply. 

Desmond mentally reached into his dynamo and found the strand connecting him to Lila via the Einherjar spell she was still moving under. He twisted the mana running through it, altering the enhancement away from power and into speed, reflexes, and subtlety.

“The wind shall whisper, the Night Witches come,” Desmond murmured, altering some song lyrics he remembered that tied into the image he needed to push the enhancement into a new direction.

Lila, hearing the chant and obviously feeling the boost, reacted without hesitation. Desmond had experimented with her in the past, using his enhancements to boost her through the obstacle courses. As this one washed over her though, she looked as if the wind itself picked her up and carried her upwards as she kicked off the ground.

Desmond watched as Lila rebounded off one wall with a quiet clink of metal on stone, angling upwards and back the other way to rebound off the other wall. In the course of about four seconds, the spry Va’Aelfa covered the hundred-odd feet of sheer cliffs by jumping off either side with the same level of grace and speed he’d seen her climb a space that was a third the size and a tenth the height.

“Clear,” Lila radioed back a handful of seconds later before slipping off the side and repeating the same motion but in reverse, using both her hands and feet to slow her descent and landing nimbly back in the lead of their jogging group without missing a beat.

“Shatter and Void, I wanna do that,” Raegan grumbled, which got a laugh from the others in the group. The big Uth’ra woman was doing her best to keep up with Lila on the parkour front, but her larger size made some maneuvers difficult.

Once Lila was back on the ground, Desmond reversed his changes and let the regular Einherjar enhancement take over once more.

“So nothing?” he asked once that twist of spellwork was done.

“No movement or signs, but it’s possible whoever was in here snuck out again.”

“In the three days time that passed between formation and us getting here?” Sasha asked, incredulous before she promptly answered her own question. “No, never mind that. Frontier security is lax enough as it is, I wouldn’t be surprised if they just walked right past.”

“I didn’t get that impression from the commander outside,” Chloe interjected before Desmond could. “She struck me as someone who was serious about her work.”

“She might be, but are all her sergeants or squads?” Sasha countered and Chloe went silent at that.

“I’ll talk to her,” Desmond said as they jogged through another open area.

Before any of his girls could protest, the triple beeps of incoming communication came through his headset. Desmond tapped the button to reopen his helmet to the regular platoon comms.

“—play with your bunk-warmers, do it on your own time,” growled Windracer and Desmond rolled his eyes. Of course the woman was just radioing to insult him.

“Is there a point to your whining?” Desmond asked in annoyance.

“Just wondering when you are your dumb—” Windracer began to snarl back and Desmond cut her off.

“I’ll remind you what happened the last time you insulted my team, Adept. Would you like a repeat performance?” he snapped.

The line went silent before another voice spoke, this time the Hyreh that had given her callsign as Anchor-6.

“ETA to exit?” she asked in a forced neutral tone.

“Minute or two. You are free to exit, Anchor-6. I have a promise to keep to the local commander in regards to those farm drones that crashed near the gate. Could you advise her to step through so I could speak with her about them? I should be at the gate by the time you track her down.”

“Understood, Helm,” she replied before letting the line fall silent.

Desmond chinned the button to go back to their newly secured squad level comms.

“What are you going to do if she does something stupid?” Chloe hissed, clearly irritated at what she saw as a clearly rash decision.

“The Rift isn’t fully secured. Stage it as an attack by one of the Rift monsters then beat feet back to the Fist. The captain can bury it from there. I doubt it will. Rockfang came across as a straight shooter and serious about her job here. If she starts looking into it as well, she might dig up some more information locally that she can forward to us. Might as well put that fancy secured comm line I have thanks to the ambassador to use.”

“That's… not a bad idea, actually,” Lila said a moment later with a thoughtful hum.

“Thanks, I have them occasionally,” Desmond replied dryly, getting a chuckle from Raegan.

“Heads up, we are coming in on the exit. I’ll boost you four to be able to move the drones. Take your time, you are the distraction after all.”

“Nope,” Chloe grunted. “You aren’t going to get left inside with only the Stars know how many potential threats while the four of us trot back and forth. Dagger, stick with him.”

Desmond wanted to protest but he knew the sense of it. These four were not just his lovers, mates, and clan. They were also his bodyguards and were very serious about that duty.

“Got it, Shield,” replied Lila as they came around the corner and stepped into the clearing that had the shimmering veil of the Rift entrance.

“Swapping us back to regular frequencies. Helm, you are going to have to pop seals or use externals to talk to the Commander. We are going to grumble about being used as mules as cover on the squad line. I’ll secure your direct line to the commander,” Sasha said, reaching down to click a few buttons that were hidden under her thigh armor, right where the sensor unit was mounted.

Clever girl, Desmond thought with a grin. All my girls are clever, but Sasha really takes it to another level sometimes.

They’d made it halfway across the field before the winged form of Commander Rockfang came through the twisting shield of light, a large battle-rifle held at the low ready over her armored chest. She even had a helmet on to protect from the ashes flowing in the air and Desmond used his helmet interface to scan for new frequencies then patched into the Commander’s helmet.

“Adept?” Rockfang asked in her gravelly voice as she strode up to meet them.

“Wanted a word with you real quick, Commander. Everything is fine,” Desmond said as his group split and his three larger guards angled towards the ash-covered piles and began brushing them off to reveal the oval drones.

He saw out of the corner of his eye when Sasha slipped her fingers into the crack in her armor, then pulled it out and tapped her hip with a hand held in the thumbs-up gesture. Once he got the signal, he turned back to the commander and held up a hand.

“Just needed for my guard to secure the channel.” That simple statement made the Gaur’s highlighter-green eyes widen and she immediately tightened her grip on her weapon before scanning their surroundings warily.

“What is going on, Adept?” Rockfang asked harshly when her eyes landed back on him. “The only reason you’d secure comms is if you thought someone might be listening. We are inside a Rift for the Empress’ sake, who would—”

She promptly bit the question off when Desmond reached into his dump pouch with one hand and withdrew the fragment of the data tablet. He angled it specifically to show her the mark engraved on the back while watching her eyes and body language carefully. He knew Lila was watching as well and would react to defend him if the commander did something.

“Empress’ tits!” snarled the commander as her eyes widened in surprise and she looked up at Desmond for a bare moment before her gaze hardened. The hands on her weapon never shifted and her wings tucked back, rustling several times like they wanted to open and flap but she was suppressing them.

“Found this deep within the Rift. Do you recognize the mark?” Desmond asked and the commander bent to look closer before slowly shaking her head.

“No, but I intend to find out where it’s from. If someone is mucking around inside a Rift on my world, then I will find out who and stake them out for the grappa bugs to eat.” The commander’s fury felt genuine to Desmond, the level of indignation matching what he remembered Throneblood having displayed when they had found that bomb in the Rift months before.

“If you find anything, I need you to pass the word along to me. I’ll give you a secure line to contact me through. My captain is already investigating and has passed word up. I cannot discuss more than that, but I have a way to get reports to people who can do something about them. It needs to stay quiet until then,” Desmond said meaningfully and the commander nodded, her lips still curling in a snarl while her wings flicked and twitched on her back in clear anxiety. 

“Understood. Transmit the code to me now before we head back out. I understand why you wanted to speak with me in here now.” The look of anger in Rockfang’s eyes told Desmond that he’d been right to trust her and he nodded.

Flipping open the access hatch to his comm-cuff, Desmond sent the contact ping to Rockfang’s suit and saw her nod when she received it, and then noted when her eyes widened as she skimmed it and saw the security level.

The large Gaur woman saluted him crisply with a fist to her chest and Desmond returned it after flipping closed the access hatch.

“We should get the drones through then…” the commander’s words trailed off when she glanced up to see Chloe, Raegan, and Sasha team-lift the downed drone and start carrying it back through the Rift entrance. “How the…? Those things weigh several tons!”

“Magic,” Desmond said with a dead serious look and a wiggle of his fingers.

The Gaur woman stood there staring at him with a dumbfounded look before she snorted a laugh out and slapped her hand over her faceplate.

“Of course… mana likes to play merry chaos with everything it touches. The only rule is that it doesn’t follow rules. Right?” The Gaur woman said between laughs and Desmond just nodded gravely, sparking off a snort of laughter from Rockfang that he could have heard even if they weren’t on the same comm line.

Chloe, Raegan, and Sasha returned and he gave his Hyreh-Taari technician a wave to let her know they were done. She nodded back to him and hit a few buttons to pull him back to the squad comms and patch the commander in.

“You should know that a certain troublemaker is out there talking shit about you, Helm,” Sasha said, punctuating her sentence with a sigh.

“Let her make noise. Big dogs don’t need to bark to establish themselves as dangerous,” Desmond said, reminding them of a saying he’d taught his girls.

“Dogs?” Commander Rockfang asked as the trio hurried to dust off and lift the other drone up.

“Companion animal back on my homeworld. We bred them from one of our most deadly predators in the early years of our species’ existence. There are hundreds of breeds of them now, but generally the rule is that the smaller they are, the more noise they have to make to assert themselves as dangerous,” Desmond answered with a smile as his three guards grunted and lifted the second heavy drone up, shuffling to move it out the door while Lila stood solidly at his back, scanning their surroundings for threats.

“Interesting. I’ve heard of such things from a number of historical accounts. Gaur domesticated a type of tree-dwelling mouse to keep bugs away from our crops, so I can see the parallels.”

The commander preceded Desmond out of the Rift entrance with a nod, her wings flexing slowly as she walked.

Before he left, Desmond turned one last time to glance over his shoulder at the ridgeline above the little ravine the Rift gate was set in. Seeing nothing, he turned back and led Lila out to meet the others on the far side.

The transition from Rift to reality was slightly more jarring than normal, due to moving at a walking pace rather than the speed of a shuttle. Desmond felt a brief tingle and his dynamo whir faster for a moment while a distant thunder echoed in his ears and then reality asserted itself and the odd feelings fell away.

“Finally, McLaughlin. Let’s get out of here,” Windracer barked from her spot near the shuttle, using the external speakers on her suit to shout across the entire field between shuttle and the Rift.

Heads turned first towards her then towards Desmond and his group by the Rift as every single person in the camp turned to stare at him.

“Bitch,” Raegan muttered on the squad comms and then the big woman choked when she remembered Commander Rockfang was in the line with them.

“I would be inclined to agree, but insulting an adept is not something someone in my position can do.” The Gaur woman said with a quiet snicker. “I’ll be in touch if there are any problems, Adept.”

“Move it, McLaughlin!” The shout boomed over the field and Desmond bit back a sigh.

“Are you going to do anything about her disrespect?” Commander Rockfang asked idly as Desmond’s girls returned to form up around him.

“No. Ignoring her is the worst thing right now. She wants to get to me, but she can’t be overt about it.”

“That’s not overt?” Rockfang asked with a surprised laugh and Desmond shook his head.

“If you have connections to anyone who serves in the Seventh Border Fleet, ask them about a certain… duel that occurred on the Vigilant Titan.” Desmond replied dryly before drawing up and saluting the commander once more. “Rift suppressed, Commander.”

“Thank you for your duty, Adept. I’ll see that the site remains secured until the Rift is drained properly,” replied Commander Rockfang, saluting him in return before they separated and Desmond turned to march smartly back towards the shuttle.

“Finally. You’d think we were paid by the hour from how you act. Those of us that do the actual work would like to get back to the ship,” griped Windracer as they approached.

“Don’t slow,” Desmond ordered over the squad comms. The girls responded with a chorus of amused laughter inside their helmets. A bit of shuffling as they approached the shuttle organized them into a row.

When Windracer realized that they weren’t slowing as they approached, her eyes widened and she ducked back out of the way only barely in time as Raegan had been leading the group. His Uth’ra lover slid right past the adept who was currently half-sprawled on one of her guards, to get to her seat.

As soon as his squad was seated and locked in, Desmond patched himself into the pilots line.

“All right, both squads are aboard. Take us back to the Fist.”

“Understood, Adept McLaughlin,” came the reply from the pilot.

“Wait!” barked Windracer, but she wasn’t linked into the right comm line. When the shuttle rumbled and began to shift underfoot, she tumbled to the decking on hands and knees and had to quickly crawl to her jumpseat.

Once the Uth’ra adept was in place, she shot glares at Desmond and his girls, but none of them met her eyes, simply staring into the middle distance with their helmets on and sealed still.

“My apologies, Adept Windracer,” Desmond said after several long seconds of silence that was only awkward for the glaring Uth’ra. “You were in such a hurry as to discard decorum to shout across the field at us, I assumed there was something urgent needed to get us back to the Fist of Defiance. Did one of your guards receive an injury? I would be happy to offer my assistance in healing if needed.”

Windracer just snarled at him wordlessly, her eyes flaring behind her faceplate at his bland statement. She didn’t speak though, not rising to the bait.

Desmond just shrugged and settled himself back into the crash webbing of his seat. He needed to organize his thoughts in order to make a proper report to Captain Skytreader when they arrived back anyway.

Negligently, he canceled the five instances of Einherjar and reeled the mana back into himself, removing the telltale glimmer of mana reinforcement from his squad’s armor. He noted that several of Windracer’s team blinked in surprise at that as the green glitter faded away to reveal their unmarked armor and smiled to himself.