Story Hub: [link]
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Border watch in the farthest reaches of the Cosmic Wall was perhaps the most boring and thankless job, but someone had to do it. If they didn’t who knows what strange alien forces would enter Themision Federation space undetected? But halfway through your first solar cycle[1] in one of those listening outposts, and you’ll be begging to be sent to the front lines of the latest galactic war, at least the scenery would be nicer.
Unfortunately for the six residents of Federation Listening Outpost Theta-4, their cries for transfer had long fallen on deaf ears, and their scenery consisted of whatever floated past their pitiful little rock situated in what could be charitably described as an asteroid field. Supposedly, an unknown foe was making raids on Federation planets over the past few lunar cycles,[2] thus their dim hopes of getting off this rock were extinguished completely. After all, what if these raids were just a precursor to a greater invasion? They could be the first to alert the Federation to such a threat and be a deciding factor in a potential war. A highly unlikely scenario, but such flights of fancy help stave off the existential boredom of the tedious, lonely, and only barely necessary task that is border watch.
“Private Char, status report on that meteor shower,” Sergeant Tyce entered the control room. He was an older, grizzled man with grey streaks in his hair and a clean-shaven face. The other soldiers stood at attention at his arrival, except for two, one of whom was Char.
“Yep, it’s a meteor shower,” Char had his boots on the control console, barely glancing at the radar or the visual feed. He was much younger than Tyce, his hair was uncombed, his stubble unshaven, and his uniform wrinkled.
“Private Char, I understand we’re a little lax here in the outer rim,” the Sergeant replied, “but I still expect you to follow the very basics of regulation and respect for the chain of command.”
“Grh,” Char grumbled. “Sir, radar and visual feed indicate it’s a perfectly average meteor shower. Minimal to no damage expected, Sir.” While the private rolled his eyes, he did at least check the radar to make sure.
“Better, but a little less attitude next time, Private,” Sergeant Tyce commented. “Private First Class Tripper, what’s the status on the maintenance of the exterior radar nodes?”
“It was roughly 90% complete this morning, Sir,” Tripper answered. He was a thinner man, a little weaselly looking, but with a sharp look in his eyes. “Hopefully the meteor shower won’t set us back too much, but it’ll be done tomorrow morning at the latest.”
“Good to hear, Private,” Tyce nodded, “Private Lunk, Corporal Reg, how goes the installation of the new Nitron Drum?”
“Sir, we successfully installed it ahead of schedule, Sir.” Reg stood at full attention. He was a shorter man with well-combed hair, a clean-shaven face, and an excellent complexion. “All systems have operated at optimum capacity since then, no more random power issues, Sir.”
“Um,” Lunk looked back and forth. He was a mountain of a man with long, tangled hair and unfocused eyes. “What he said, Sir.”
“Great work as always, you two,” Tyce nodded, before turning to his last soldier with a sigh. “Private Pinc.” Pinc was the other soldier who refused to stand at attention. He was a little older than his fellow privates, yet he was even more unkempt than Char. His uniform was stained, his facial hair was ungroomed, and his workstation was a mess.
“What can I help you with, Sarge?” Pinc didn’t even look up from his holopad, giving more attention to sports scores than the Sergeant’s gaze.
“Based on your casual demeanor, Private, I take it you’ve completed your duties?” Tyce asked, already knowing the answer.
“Sure thing, boss,” Pinc blew him off.
“Private Pinc, I understand your checkered history with the Stellar Navy has left you with a difficult relationship to authority, but I still expect you to complete your work,” Tyce glared at him.
“Or what? You’ll reassign me to some desolate backwater at the edge of space?” Pinc replied before looking around dramatically. “Oh, wait, command beat you to it.”
“How about I take everyone down to the training room for a couple of hours?” the Sergeant threatened. “I’m sure they’ll thank you for the exercise.”
“Please, everyone already hates my guts,” Pinc scoffed.
“If that’s the case, how about you do them all a favor? That might improve your standing,” Tyce grinned. “You’re on waste disposal duty for the next three lunar cycles.”
“Sure thing, boss,” Pinc turned his chair away.
“Hear that, everyone? Make sure to drop off your trash at Pinc’s quarters from now on, he said he’ll handle it.”
“Oh, you’ve got to be blastin’ me,” Pinc snapped as everyone else laughed at his expense.
As the “meteor shower” rained down on Theta-4’s asteroid, none of the soldiers noticed a very peculiar object hidden amongst the meteors, a solid metal pod. As the meteors impacted the surface, the pod slammed deep into the ground, its landing obscured by their debris. The pod opened with a mechanical hiss, revealing a small, winged, female humanoid with messy violet hair. She wore sleek, form-fitting armor that looked like a thin bodysuit at first glance, but a close examination revealed it was quite sturdy. Almost as if it was built into, and inside of, her body, as her wrist guards and boots seemed one size too small, even for her slender frame.
“Amelia Unit S71N6. Activated,” its internal computer declared. The unit awoke with an artificial yawn as her optical sensors adjusted to the environment. She spotted the listening station immediately and stood up with a grin. “Target located, beginning mission,” she took one step forward before tripping over a rock and falling on her face. The cyborg not-so-elegantly rolled down the hill, all the way to the listening station, before hitting the structure with a metal thud.
“Recalibrating equilibrium bolt,” the Amelia Unit mumbled to herself as she shook off her dizziness. “Now, how do I get in?” S7 scanned her surroundings for a moment before noticing an air vent on the side of the structure. “Entry point located,” she cheered, before quickly silencing herself. With a literal hop, skip, and a jump, she bounded over to the vent and ripped it open with her bare hands before crawling inside.
“Wha?” Private Char watched as the radar screen in front of him showed a brief blip. It had appeared for only a second, but it had been so long since he had seen much of anything on the radar that it shocked him out of his bored stupor. “Way to give me a scare,” the soldier shook his head.
“Is there something on the radar, Private?” Sergeant Tyce asked.
“Only the briefest blip, probably another meteor raet like it always is,” Char dismissed it.
“Still, I’d rather not take any chances,” Tyce stated, “I want you to check it out, Private. Where was it detected and how big is it?”
“On the far side of the station, in air recycling vent 32, and it’s small, whatever it is,” Char explained, “smaller than your average soldier. That’s why I think it’s just a fat meteor raet.”
“Then there’d be no harm in checking it, Private,” Tyce insisted.
“I’ll handle it, Sarge,” Private Pinc volunteered. “I need to stretch my legs anyway.”
“Is that so?” The Sergeant didn’t buy his sudden desire for work. “Well, if you want to check it out, I want you there and back in ten cycles[3]. I don’t want you taking another of your twenty cycle fogger breaks.”
“Fine, fine, I’ll be quick,” Pinc threw up his hand before he jumped to his feet, grabbed his laser rifle, and sauntered out.
“Private Char, Corporal Reg, watch the security systems and make sure he actually investigates,” Tyce ordered.
“Yes, sir,” they said in unison.
Pinc decided to take a drag on his fogger while he walked to save time. If the Sergeant was going to time him down to the microcycle, he had little time to waste. Besides, he needed the hit, and it’s not like he expected to find much of anything. Char was right to be skeptical, those random blips were always a meteor raet, and Pinc was tired of Tyce acting like it was an intergalactic emergency every time the security system pinged with another false positive.
The Private turned a corner as he counted the numbered air vents, 28, 29, 30, 31, before finally reaching 32 near the end of a hallway. He popped open the vent with a standard issue utility tool (no soldier leaves home without it, although Pinc usually used it to crack open liquor canisters), before readying his rifle in case the raet tried to attack him like the incident with Lunk last week. In the worst case, Pinc had both his stunner and his ploder charges on him. Of course, the Sergeant would blow a gasket if he used one of those inside the outpost, but since he was already in trouble, Pinc didn’t care.
However, instead of a fat, nasty rodent, Pinc found what looked like a young girl stuck upside down in the vent. He took a moment to make sure his eyes were, in fact, functioning properly before taking a few steps back and arming his laser rifle.
“Well, this is embarrassing,” S7 laughed. “You wouldn’t be willing to help a girl out, would you? Would you, would you?”
“…” Wordlessly, Pinc shook his head and leveled his rifle at the stuck cyborg.
“You wouldn’t shoot a helpless opponent, would you? Would you, would you?” S7 exclaimed.
‘We’ve been desperate for excitement, but I ain’t stupid enough to take risks with someone crazy enough to climb through our vents,’ Pinc thought as he fired his rifle. But right as he pulled the trigger, S7 sucked in her gut and zipped back up the vent, as if propelled by an unseen hand. The laser bolt only struck the vent, leaving Pinc confused as he didn’t see what happened, just that she was suddenly gone. That’s when a vent above him burst open.
“Hello, hello again,” S7 pounced on Pinc from above and started to grapple him. While she was smaller than he was, she was also annoyingly persistent, so it took him far longer than he expected to throw her off.
“Eat this and die!” Pinc fired off a barrage of laser rounds, but only one hit home, striking S7 dead in the chest. The cyborg seemed hurt for a brief moment before laughing it off.
“You’re not going to hurt me with that little, little peashooter,” S7 giggled. “That thing is for security guards protecting a drug store, not warring, warring warfare.”
“I ain’t out of options,” Pinc reached for his ploder charges.
“Wow, wow, wow, you could hurt someone with those,” S7 put up her hands.
“You folded quick,” Pinc took a few steps back to build some distance. “What even are you?”
“What, you’ve never seen a Cyangel before? Before this or before that?” S7 acted offended, but kept her hands up.
“I’ve heard of you weirdos before, but I can’t say I’ve seen one until now,” Pinc rested his hand on the ploder charge. “But why are you here?”
“Is that a tricky trick question?” S7 replied as she squeezed her fingers, causing a pair of ‘stingers’ to emerge from her wrist guards. The stingers were topped with a small node that emitted a surge of electricity, stunning Pinc and causing him to drop his rifle.
‘Feels like I’ve been electrocuted, or worse,’ Pinc went blind with pain. It was so bad that it took him several agonizing seconds to realize S7 had jumped onto his back again and was trying to choke him out.
“Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep,” S7 repeated as she squeezed him harder.
“Get…get off,” Pinc muttered as he slammed her into the wall several times to no avail. ‘No…if the laser didn’t hurt her, then slamming her won’t be enough, but I wonder how much voltage she can take.’ The private spied a fuse box and tried to charge it.
“Eekity Eek,” S7 leaped off him before he could fry them both. Pinc stumbled as she jumped away, but managed to right himself, albeit still shaky.
“Lose your nerve, you little freak?” Pinc spat.
“No, no, no, I got what I needed,” she held up her hands, revealing a grenade pin on both index fingers.
“Shi-” Pinc’s heart dropped as the whole world went white.
“Faster, Private!” Tyce shouted as he and Char raced to Pinc’s location. He thanked his lucky stars that his men had kept a close eye on Pinc through the cameras, or else they might not have realized there really was an intruder until it was far too late. Now they just had to cross their fingers and hope Pinc would be fine on his own until they got there. “Reg, do you still have eyes on the fight?” The Sergeant said into the communicator built into his wrist.
“Camera feed is disrupted, sir!” Reg replied, “Something went off. It might have been a ploder charge.”
“I didn’t hear a ploder charge,” Char commented, “we’d have all felt that.”
“Then what the hell is happening?” Tyce wondered aloud as they neared Pinc’s location.
‘I’m…alive?’ Pinc’s ears were ringing while his vision slowly came back. “That sneak, she triggered my stunners, not the ploders…but what is her game?”
“A fun, funny game,” S7 whispered in his ear from behind him as she jabbed him in the back of the neck with her stinger. Pinc almost didn’t feel it, he was still so disoriented, but the deepest part of his subconscious still sensed the tiny prick, and it made his skin crawl. Hearing Tyce and Char coming from around the corner, S7 retreated into the shadows and disappeared into another vent as Pinc failed to stay on his feet.
“P….he….?” The Private heard through the haze.
“Pin….you…w..h us?” The ringing began to fade as Pinc could perceive the world again.
“Private Pinc, answer me!” Tyce pleaded. Pinc finally realized he had collapsed onto the floor, and Tyce and Char were standing over him, trying to rouse him.
“F-fine, Sergeant,” Pinc managed to say, “just a little spooked and humiliated.” Pinc got back on his feet, but just as he felt stable, a wave of nausea and a sense of doom forced him back to his knees.
“Fine, my ass. Char, help me move him,” the Sergeant ordered as the two picked up their debilitated comrade. “What happened?”
“It...it...it was a freaking Cyangel, Sarge,” Pinc said as he tried to push down another wave of nausea. “I thought they were loons, but I couldn’t do a thing to her. Give me a sec to get over this stu...st...stunner, and I’ll go kick her ass.”
“Forget about that, Private,” Tyce shook his head. “We’re heading back to the control room, and we’ll deal with this intruder as a unit.” Tyce and Char carried Pinc back to safety, oblivious to S7 watching them from the vents with a mischievous, yet malicious, grin.
To Be Continued…
[1] A solar cycle is roughly equivalent to a year.
[2] A lunar cycle is roughly equivalent to a month.
[3] A cycle is roughly equivalent to a minute.
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No matter how tedious or boring a job, never lose focus and never slack off. You never know when you might learn the hard way why your job exists in the first place.
Author's Note: Apologies for this story being late, the next part should be ready to go next week. I just haven't had the time or the energy to write in the past several weeks, just a mixture of having to work, getting sick and other responsibilities eating up my time. I'm hopefully past the rough spot now.
As for the story itself, well I leave those details for when I post the last part, but consider this a follow up to the previous "Free Will is Overrated" (FWiO) story. I plan on making it more of anthology rather than following any one place or group, slowly following the Cyangel's effect on the galaxy. And yes I'm going to keep the wildly varying tone, expect thing to get freakier in the next two parts.
Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy.
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