The Battle For Cyclops: A Xander Cain Novel Page 6

  “He’s got you there,” Anya said. She was leaning back in her chair, rocking on its legs.

  “I tried being a solider for money, remember? Didn’t much care for it.”

  The doors to the hall opened, people filing through. Alexi was first, followed quickly by Meg, Sergei, Tamara and then finally their newest recruit Candice. They took seats in the front row, the chairs creaking as they sat down. Xander nodded at them each in turn.

  “This is plush, we should use this place more often,” Alexi said. “Makes us feel like a professional outfit.”

  “I do say this ship certainly has an elegance to it. Reminds me of my time as a debutant. I feel woefully underdressed for this occasion,” Candice said. “This thing must have cost you a king’s ransom.”

  “Something like that,” Xander said. “Everyone, I want to introduce you to Candice Beaumont. She’ll be piloting the dropship docked to the Sunchaser for the foreseeable future.”

  “Charmed to meet you,” Candice said.

  “So, what’s the gig here? Anything we can spin on a positive?” Tamara had a tablet clutched under her arm, as she always seemed to.

  “This is the planet Cyclops, the only planet in the system of the same name,” Xander said.

  “Fitting,” Alexi said. “I wonder what genius came up with that one.”

  “Regardless, Cyclops was to be the site of a brand-new guild station. That was until the station was attacked.” Xander tapped at his tablet. The image of the planet zoomed in, showing a representation of the station. There wasn’t much to go on, the computer rendering it a simple blue orb. “The guild thinks the attack came from a concealed base on the surface, somewhere here, in the planet’s habitable zone.” Another button press highlighted the belt that ran from north to south across the world in green.

  “When you say habitable zone? I’m guessing the rest of this place isn’t suitable for life?” Tamara was typing as Xander spoke, making notes to include in her spin videos.

  “No. This is a tidally locked world. That means one side faces the sun constantly. Hence the big hole in all the ice. The green zone is the only place that’s survivable. Too far one way and you freeze, too far the other way and well, there’s nowhere to go.”

  “Couldn’t they be based on the water?” Tamara said.

  “Nah, that would be way too easy to spot. You might as well be wearing black in the snow,” Mikal said. “If I were hiding on a place like this, it would be in the glaciers and ice flows. Chances are there might even be some nice rocky terrain in that belt.”

  “So, this comes right from the guild, huh?” Alexi said. “We'll get a lot of kudos if we pull this off. Not many companies can boast being hired directly.”

  “On the other hand, if we mess this up, we’re in trouble,” Sergei said. “I don’t think our reputation could take the hit. I’m only starting to grasp how important that is to this business. Everywhere I go it’s king.”

  “Any ideas who did this?” Tamara said, her fingers dancing across the tablet.

  “Our old friends. Black Rose,” Xander said. “Specifically, they captured the crew working on the station. Our mission is to go down to the planet, locate the Black Rose base and rescue the crew.”

  “What about the base?” Anya said.

  “We're weapons-free on that. The guild doesn't care as long as we get their people out.”

  “So, we can blow them the fuck up?

  “Yes.”

  “Outstanding,” Anya said.

  “We're not going to though,” Sergei said. “Now we have the finalised contract the guild was kind enough to give us total salvage rights on this one. As in everything, one hundred per cent. Every mechsuit we don't destroy, every gun we can take, is another credit in our coffers. If we're lucky we can make more here than the guild is paying us. This could be a real windfall for the company.”

  “Sergei is right. As fun as it would be to go in guns blazing, this needs to be a stealth op. We need to extract the prisoners before we can even consider salvage. And of course, the quieter we go in the easier it will be to snag what we want,” Xander said. He put down his tablet.

  “And how exactly do you plan on doing that, darling? Chances are we’ll stand out like willow amongst sycamores on a June day,” Candice said. Next to her Tamara silently mouthed Candice’s words, trying to work out what she meant exactly.

  “Well, I’ll tell you once we’ve worked it out. It’ll take us three weeks to get out to Cyclops,” Xander said. “If anyone has any bright ideas, you’ve got until then to share them.”

  Chapter Eight

  Xander allowed himself to drop backwards onto his bed, the soft mattress catching him, his torso bouncing a little. He wasn’t afraid to admit he had gotten used to the plush rooms aboard the Sunchaser quickly. Like everything else on the ship no expense had been spared during its construction, and Xander’s quarters would have put even the most high-end hotels to shame. Some of the other mercenaries had joked about him returning to what he was used to, but the truth was despite his upbringing Xander had never had a room as nice as this one. His parents had been extremely keen on giving Xander and his brother Abraham a taste of mercenary life from an early an age as possible. This meant despite the sprawling manor Xander had grown up in his room had been sparse, with only a folding cot and a single storage locker.

  Xander's parents had repeatedly told him it would build character. He had never understood what that meant exactly. It implied people who were raised differently were somehow lacking in some nebulous measurement that seemed to vary each time Xander had asked about it. Now he was older Xander could see it for the nonsense it was. It was just the kind of thing someone would tell themselves as justification for being horrible people. They weren’t cold and unfeeling, they just had character.

  Xander swung his legs onto the bed and reached over to press the light switch mounted to the wall. The bed itself was set into the wall in a kind of alcove, one with a curtain that could be pulled across the front. It was entirely unnecessary, there were no windows in the room and the curtain served only to block out the dim light from the handful of control panels that were scattered about. It was another example of the kind of unwarranted expense spread throughout the Sunchaser. The ship had been purchased by its former owners, a now-defunct corporation called Heliustech, to transport valuable lost tech they had discovered. At some point in that process, someone had decided that fitting velvet curtains by every bed was necessary. It was no wonder the company had collapsed.

  It had been a long day. After the briefing everyone had stayed in the hall, discussing ideas until sleep threatened to overcome them. The Sunchaser was set to what was known as ship time, a kind of shared time zone that was standard to ships and stations. Two AM on one ship was two AM on another. It was a useful tradition, the nature of mercenary work meant travelling between worlds with different day lengths and ships sticking to a twenty-four-hour standard helped with that. Xander’s mind drifted to the planet they were now on course for. He wondered how a planet that had one side constantly facing its sun would even track the days. It had to be disorientating.

  “I think I’ve got an idea,” Matthias said.

  “Oh, great. You’ve been silent all day, and then decide to speak once I’m trying to sleep.”

  “My apologies. I’ve been pondering our mission, calculating the different variables and such. I’m not really designed for these kinds of scenarios so it took more effort than I would have liked.”

  “How do you even know what you’re designed for? Wouldn’t that information be in your lost memories?” Xander dragged himself into a seated position. Talking to the AI whilst lying down felt wrong, a little too much like chatting with a lover.

  “My function isn’t a memory it’s…more intrinsic. It’s like how you know you’re a person. You don’t remember being a human being, you just are. Ultimately I am an interface between a pilot and a mechanised unit.”

  “So, you’re
just an operating system,” Xander said. He sighed and tapped the panel next to his bed, turning on the lights low.”

  “I am rather more complex than the software you’re alluding to, but I suppose the analogy fits. Still, my intellect is rather considerable and-”

  “And your modesty is non-existent?” Xander stepped up from the bed and began to wander across the room, his bare feet slapping against the metal.

  “Hilarious. I suppose you don’t want to hear my idea then?”

  “If I must?” In the corner of Xander's room was a small table made of ornately carved wood, the furniture made of rich polished mahogany. Atop it was an electric kettle, a pair of mugs and jar of instant coffee. Xander picked up the kettle, pressing the button to pop open its lid. He began to stroll towards the rooms attached bathroom, another considerable expense in the construction of the ship.

  “I’ve been thinking about the star system, this Cyclops. If you jump in near the planet we’ll be noticed immediately, correct?”

  Now in the bathroom, an overwhelming chrome and white place, Xander turned on the tap, letting the water fill the kettle in his hands. “More or less. If we appear right in orbit, we can maybe launch the dropship before they detect the Sunchaser but seeing as we don’t know exactly where the base is chances are the prisoners will be toast before we find anything.”

  “So ideally, we would need to locate the base first, before beginning any assault, correct?”

  “Right.” Xander switched off the tap and snapped the lid of the kettle shut.

  “Then I believe my idea is our best chance then. It would solve our issue of being spotted at least,” Matthias said. “It would be easier if I could show you, but alas I’m trapped in this…meat. If I were back in the Paladin, I could display it on a screen…”

  “Not sure I like you referring to my brain as meat. That feels a little wrong.” Xander slotted the kettle back onto its stand and flicked the switched. He picked the cleanest looking of the mugs, unscrewed the lid of the coffee then dropped in two spoonsful of it into the grotty china. Xander picked up a tablet from atop a nearby chest of drawers and with a few taps activated the monitor mounted to the wall of his room. With another few sweeps of his finger, he loaded up a map of the Cyclops system. “So, what's the plan.”

  The image was simple, a single orange orb representing the star at the heart of the system, with a small blue dot standing in for the planet.

  “This planet is tidally locked, correct? The one side is always facing the star. Now, we know that the enemy base must be within a specific band,” Matthias said. “Slide the map across to the right.”

  Xander did as asked, moving the image so that the planet bumped up against the edge of the screen.

  “That’s right. Even with that restriction though there’s a lot of ground to cover. Too much.”

  “True. Though that isn’t what I’m getting at. This means that we know the restrictions of the enemy’s line of sight, for lack of a better term. Restricting themselves to that band means that they cannot possibly have sensor coverage of the planet’s farthest points to the east and west.”

  “You’re right, and I’ve considered that, but those blindspots would be tiny. There is no way we could jump the Sunchaser in at those points, jump drives aren’t that accurate,” Xander said. The kettle had clicked off, so he poured the boiling water into his mug, steam drifting lazily from within.

  “Not technically true. I must confess this idea is somewhat inspired by something your pirate friend said earlier. When he was talking about ambushing ships. They were able to appear extremely close to their targets. I’m assuming that jump drives are more accurate over shorter distances, correct?”

  “They are. Still doesn’t solve our problem of having to jump into the system in the first place.” Xander stirred his coffee, then removed the spoon and placed it into the unused mug. “So, we’re back where we started.”

  “Again, I have an idea for that. Another one borrowed from the pirate. I think confirming my plan with him would be a prudent idea before going ahead with it. Aside from his captaincy of this vessel making that necessary, his experience may prove valuable. You can’t go in guns blazing as you did on Hades.”

  “That worked though.” Xander blew on his coffee, before taking a long sip. He would need the caffeine; no doubt Matthias would want to talk through the entirety of his plan in excruciating detail.

  “It worked because you had me, and the Paladin. We don’t have the technological advantage this time.”

  “Well, we’ve still got you at least. That’s something. Come on then. Tell me the rest of your plan.”

  ***

  The engines of the Sunchaser flared to life, beginning its acceleration. It had taken days to work out the complex mathematics needed. If the ship wasn’t travelling at the right velocity and direction, then the plan wouldn’t work.

  Xander was sat on the bridge, taking a position with Sergei near the side, away from the crew as they worked. He was happy to let them do their jobs. The harsh schooling his parents had put him through as a child, extra training for his eventual life as a mercenary, had emphasised letting specialists do the job you hired them for.

  At the other side of the bridge, Tamara was directing Trevor and Mitch as they recorded what was happening. The two men were former employees of the same web studio and had joined the Paladins with Tamara. They acted as her film crew, recording everything so she could include it in the videos she released. Mitch had a camera in his thick muscled arms, whilst the smaller wiry Trevor was carrying a boom mic.

  “We’re at the required speed, cap,” said the crewman manning the navigation station. “We’re ready to make that jump.”

  “I hope this works,” Mikal said, looking at Xander briefly. “Engage the jump drive!”

  Reality winked for a moment, the Sunchaser vanishing from space. Within the ship, there was no sensation, no feeling of travelling at all, the time between the ship vanishing from one place and reappearing in another so short as to be unnoticeable to any human.

  The Sunchaser reappeared, leaping across space to the Cyclops system. It had been weeks of waiting, preparing, planning, but this was the moment it all mattered. The plan was ultimately, incredibly simple. The Cyclops system only had a single planet. To avoid detection the Sunchaser was going to appear directly opposite that planet, matching its orbit around the star so that the blazing ball of nuclear fire sat perfectly between them, making it impossible for the ship to be detected.

  “Jump complete. We’re in position,” said the navigation crewman.

  “This is a hell of a trick you thought of, Cain. I’ve got to hand it to you. Would have made a hell of a pirate.”

  “I'll take that as a compliment. This is only the start though. Next, we need to get into the blind spot on the far side of the planet. How long until we can jump again?”

  “About a day. Don’t worry about this bit. Jumps like that are my bread and butter. Me and the crew will get us into place no problems. This is the easy shit,” Mikal said. “You need to get ready to go down.”

  Xander sighed. Before launching an assault, they needed to find the Black Rose base first. That meant a scouting mission, one in a landscape hostile to life. He had volunteered himself for the mission. It had taken some convincing of the other riders, they had all stepped up to offer their services. It was hard to argue you had the advantage because of the AI living in your brain when you were unwilling to reveal their existence.

  “I’ll cope. Right, well, we’ve got a day to prepare for the operation. Let’s spend it wisely.”

  Anatomy of a Dropship

  Ground to space transport vehicles, colloquially known as dropships, are a vital part of modern military operations. Without them, combat under the articles of war would simply be unfeasible, the movement of troops and materiel to the surface of a planet nearly impossible without them. This article seeks to act as a primer to new Heliustech employees unfamiliar with sp
ace-based operations. After this article, there will be a ten-question knowledge check that must be recorded in your permanent HR file. By reading this article you are agreeing that Heliustech is not responsible for any damages incurred by improper use of dropships or any related equipment.

  Heliustech does not own any dropships, instead renting them where relevant. When we do, we choose to use either General Starships Pegasus models, or the Sleipnir variant when moving mechsuits is necessary. Both models feature elements that are common to dropship designs across all manufacturers.

  At its most basic, a dropship is an aircraft capable of vertical take-off and landing, with enough thrust to breach the atmosphere of a planet. They act as shuttles, ferrying things to and from the surface of a planet. Standard mechsuit carrying designs have a payload of four mechs, along with several dozen personnel if needed. Models without the capability to carry mechsuits, like the Pegasus, are able to fit in an additional deck and can carry upwards of two hundred men or a dozen tanks (or similar materiel). Regardless of what it carries, a dropship's engines are extremely powerful and based on pre-collapse technology, one thankfully discovered very early into the recolonization of space. Strong though they are, the fuel costs associated with them make dropships financially unsuitable for long term use.

  The execution is relatively simple from a design perspective. As well as powerful engines, each dropship has a reasonable supply of oxygen, can be sealed against a vacuum and as it relies on pure thrust to fly can operate in multiple atmospheres. Their strong engines allow a dropship to be reasonably armoured for an aircraft, though they are by no means invulnerable to fire. Quite the opposite, dropships are priority targets for enemy fire, and Heliustech employees choosing to travel by dropship accept all risks and are reminded that injury during dropship travel is not covered by the company health plan.

  Another feature common to dropships is connection ports compatible with jump ships. It is extremely common for mercenary companies to operate entirely by dropship, connecting to a jump vessel in one system and then detaching in another. Companies will occasionally own a dropship, though most will require dropships be paid and provided by their employers as part of their contract. Remember, as a Heliustech employee you should endeavour to act in the companies benefit in all things. If a mercenary contract requires that dropships be provided, use this as leverage to lower the cost of the operation. Be creative with charging, for example, deduct the cost of jumping the dropships to pick up the mercenaries.