Betrayal on Aztiko

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a sequel to the story Two Soldiers. If you don't read that first, you're probably going to be very confused while trying to read this one.

CHAPTER 1:

Jacob Caldwell clung to the overhead handrail and sunk into his seat as the transport swerved again to avoid an asteroid, the harness around him tight enough to keep him from flying out of his seat completely but not tight enough to keep him from bouncing around. He felt his stomach churn and his vision blur, then the craft returned to a stable altitude, albeit still going far too fast for his liking.

He had never been in a military transport craft before and it showed. Sweat poured down his face and his eyes darted nervously around the cabin before settling on the amused face of the soldier four seats away from him.

"First time in spaceflight?"

Jacob shook his head and tried to relax, finally letting go of the handrail and taking a series of deep breaths.

"Not in anything this fast." As a payroll manager for the PDE's armed forces one would assume he'd at least spent some time on military craft, but the fact is he hadn't needed to up until this point. Most of his job could be done from his own home, but this was a unique circumstance.

PDE personnel in training at the Aztiko Integrated Operations Academy hadn't received any payment in months, mainly due to the fact that up until recently they had no feasible means of going on leave to spend any money in the first place, seeing as the desert planet was far outside of launchship range on the borders of URG and Federation territories. This made it perfect for an outer reach facility that turned the finest soldiers and marines into even more effective and lethal killing machines.

Recently however, a military residential station had finished construction that was just close enough for a 10 hour long trip between it and Aztiko after launchship departure. The cadets heard about it and were clamoring for an opportunity to get better food, more music and films, whatever they couldn't acquire planetside but could be found at the station's commissary. Many of these cadets were also interested in sharing more PDE culture with the aliens on Aztiko training alongside them, and after a short while the same 10 holofilms stop being interesting, especially to the seemingly perpetually disinterested Lunar Sisters.

The problem was that an outgoing communications blackout was strictly enforced at the academy, and while they could receive important news updates - such as the recent construction of a residential station for military personnel and their families - a data packet containing their salary wouldn't be allowed through as it wasn't considered a necessity. This wasn't an issue for the regular troops garrisoned there, as they were being rotated out every month or so, but the cadets where there for the long run.

So here was Jacob on the verge of spewing all over the cabin, desperately hoping the computer held onto him via a shoulder strap doesn't slip off of him. If he dropped it in a craft going this fast it was bound to get shattered, then they'd have to start this whole thing over.

Caleb meanwhile was completely unphased and sat in a relaxed state, only occasionally straightening his legs to push himself deeper into the seat to prevent himself from sliding about.

Because all the other PDE cadets were currently being held planetside for a few more days due to disciplinary reasons (not that Caleb wasn't involved in that mess, he just didn't get caught), Caleb was the only one who could go to the station during this trip. He had hoped to just take a storage drive or something with him back so he could pay everyone, but Jacob insisted that all salary amounts had to remain confidential, and now he was stuck with a civilian who wouldn't stop groaning and gagging. It almost made him wish the guy would just puke already and get it over with.

Caleb tried his best to put all of that out of his mind. A thin projector in one hand was showing some low budget action holo, and his other hand grasping the carrying handles of two extremely large shopping bags, what they had in them Jacob didn't know.

"So... it looks like you bought a lot of stuff there."

Caleb nodded, keeping his attention on the holofilm as Jacob continued.

"Not to be rude but, maybe to pass the time you could tell me some of what you bought? You must have spent half a year's worth there."

Caleb let out a subtle sigh and paused the holofilm.

"Some games, some movies, mostly food though."

Jacob eyed him questioningly.

"How much?"

"Not sure exactly how much." Caleb shrugged, "But this whole bag is full of sandwiches."

Jacob's expression went from nauseated to disbelief as Caleb used his index finger to point to the largest bag. He strained and leaned forward in his seat a bit.

"You can't eat all of those before they go bad, especially in the climate of a place like Aztiko."

Caleb laughed.

"You're right. I can't, but only a few of these are for me. The rest are for somebody else."

"Why not just let the other trainees pay for their own food when they take a trip up there?"

Caleb pressed a button and put the projector to sleep before putting it in a pouch on the front of his uniform, then brought the bags up to set them on his lap.

"They're for Molly... well I call her that, everyone else has to say Malldeka. She's kinda big so she eats a lot, and I'm still not entirely sure if we've set up a system allowing for Lunar Federation currency to be converted to credits or not."

Jacob's eyes widened even further and his mouth hung open.

"Wait... you're that guy? The one who... you know?"

Caleb laughed again.

"You asking about me being some kind of war hero because I helped capture that Merkeb fabrication bunker or about me banging a Lunar Sister?"

Jacob blinked a few times.

"I actually had no idea about the second part, in all honesty. I heard you cooperated but... not that closely"

Caleb shrugged and took the projector out again to resume his movie.

"Yep, I'm that guy."

Hours had passed and Jacob had given up trying to get any rest as every time he dozed off his head would get thrown back or his body would be jerked around. Instead just stared incredulously with bloodshot eyes at Caleb who somehow had managed to keep himself still enough to get to sleep.

The realization that they would arrive on Aztiko within moments was only mildly comforting, as Jacob would be on the world for only a few hours before his work was done and he had to get back on the transport. That wasn't nearly enough time to get any rest, nor was it really enough time for him to calm his nerves and psyche himself up for the trip home. Hopefully in the near future a more convenient method of transportation between the station and the planet would be established.

And hopefully Jacob wouldn't be the poor bastard they sent down here to transfer over funds again.

As he considered asking for some kind of tranquilizer to knock him out for the return flight he was filled with a sudden wave of terror and renewed nausea as the craft shook violently. This was not the same as the previous maneuvers meant to avoid various space debris, the red lights flashing in the cabin and the sound of an emergency klaxon blaring was evidence of that.

Caleb also took notice of this and jolted awake, far more angered than scared.

"The fuck?!"

He unhooked his harness and secured his bags with it before slowly standing and grasping onto the overhead handrail. As the craft steadied itself to the best of its ability, he carefully made his way closer to the cockpit using the handrail to keep himself vertical. Jacob stayed in his seat and put his head in his hands, trying to avoid vomiting and then crying like a baby in that order.

Caleb eventually reached the cockpit door and pounded on it with a closed fist, trying his best to shout over the rumbling of the ship and the screeching of the alarm.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

At first he was met with no response leading to another outburst and a renewed assault on the door. His second attempt at gaining the attention of the pilot was successful, and the cockpit door slid open.

Jacob couldn't really decipher most of what was being said over the noise, but he did make out "that fucking alarm" and "goddamned autopilot".

Suddenly the alarm went silent, although the lights continued to flash. Caleb began to make his way back to his seat, shaking his head and muttering angrily the whole way.

"What happened?" Jacob's voice was shaky. He wasn't entirely convinced that the immediate danger had passed, and the bright red light continuing to flood the cabin didn't help with that.

Caleb lugged the bags out of his seat and strained to hold them in one hand as he plopped back down and awkwardly strapped himself back in. When he was satisfied with the tightness of his harness he answered.

"Apparently the autopilot malfunctioned while he was asleep and we got clipped by an asteroid or something. Now one of the thrusters is all fucked up."

"How bad is 'fucked up'?" Jacob's tone betrayed his anxiety. Nervousness was about to give way to panic. "We can still land, right?"

Caleb chuckled a bit, then raised a hand and slowly lowered it, motioning for Jacob to calm himself.

"Just chill out, okay? I've been in plenty of transports, several of which have crashed. We aren't gonna crash, I can tell you that much."

Jacob breathed a huge sigh of relief, the stiffness slowly leaving his body.

"We'll land and it probably won't be too rough, the problem will be getting this thing into space again."

As quickly as it left, the panic in Jacob rose again.

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

Caleb shook his head and pulled out his holoprojector before looking at it dismissively and returning it to his breast pocket.

"I don't think this ship is grounded forever or anything, and I'm far from a mechanic or an engineer or whatever, but I do know that this is an older model without too many redundancies."

Jacob stared blankly and Caleb sighed.

"That means that there's no backup propulsion methods. A disabled thruster is a disabled thruster. We'll be able to make it into orbit and to the LZ on the momentum we've built up just fine, but once we land it's on the ground until it's fixed. It won't take off and it definitely isn't breaking orbit."

Jacob's fear turned to frustration and his hands returned to his face, this time to rub at his temples.

"How long until they fix it?"

"Dunno." Caleb shrugged. "Like I said, not a mechanic or an engineer."

***************************************** *****************************************

"Did you see it, brother?"

Wicked talons twisted the multitude of dials on the monitor, zooming into wear the small, sudden flash that appeared for a split second had been.

"How could I not? Are we both not observing the same patch of space?"

The response was gruff and aggravated. The new warrior was enthusiastic about service to the Flame, but his excitement had become grating. His eagerness to eliminate the unfaithful might have seemed endearing were he still a child, but as a youth fresh out of training it was arrogant, a state of mind betraying his lack of true experience.

"I told you more were arriving. Do you still doubt me, brother? Do you still doubt that they plan something?"

The old warrior ignored the untested one and focused on trying to get a better view of the surface of the planet. He muttered a curse under his breath, the equipment they had simply wasn't strong enough to give a visual of what exactly was going on down there. Not unless they went closer which risked their being discovered, and right now it was best that he knew about them and not the other way around.

No, he hadn't seen much, but he had seen enough to know that was a troop transport. One of those hadn't arrived in many long months. Before it was just cargo barges and a few ships he didn't recognize, most likely the ones used by the grey women.

"We should strike them now! They won't be expecting it, we can kill them before-"

A steely glare immediately silenced the outburst.

"Am I to assume that you have somehow managed to land yourself on the planet's surface and see what they have down there? How many there are? What kind of weapons and armor they have at their disposal?"

The young, untested warrior was angered at being corrected... but his elder was right.

"We don't even know if the unfaithful have actually crossed into our borders yet, much less if we have the strength garrisoned here to remove them from the planet. However, if you are so eager to taste your first drop of foreign blood, to set yourself upon them despite having no logical reason to, then be my guest and go there yourself without me to hold you back."

Another dial was turned and the viewscreen powered down with a low buzz.

"What happened to your courage, young warrior? You no longer want to strike now that you realize you will be doing so on your own?"

"...I do not."

"Then we will wait for guidance from a cleric, just as I had decided previously." The old warrior's expression didn't soften, instead the glare intensified even further. "We will wait, and while we wait you will be silent."

The young warrior was far from wise, but even he was beginning to understand that his elder was most likely never going to be convinced of the truth. ***************************************** *****************************************

CHAPTER 2:

The intercom made a beeping noise as it activated, the pilot's voice echoing throughout the cabin.

"Alright, we're approaching port now. We should be landing in just a few minutes... shit." A sudden lurch as he tried to keep it steady. "It looks like this is might be a bit rough, hang onto something!"

Jacob grasped the handrail even tighter with both hands and Caleb casually reached up to also take hold while squeezing his bags close to his chest. Jacob felt as if he was going down an elevator at an incredibly high speed, like his heart was going to lurch up into his throat at any minute. He closed his eyes as sweat poured down his face at an accelerated rate.

Suddenly he was thrown upward, only stopped from banging his head on the handrail by his harness as they made a sudden but stable landing on the planet. Finally it was over, at least until they had to take off again.

Jacob wasn't sure if he was glad he'd have more time to get ready for the return trip or upset that he'd been marooned on a desert planet. Either way, he took comfort in the fact that he would finally be able to get to his feet and walk on stable ground.

He unhooked his harness with shaky hands and cautiously stood up, half expecting the ship to suddenly take off again. After a few moments, he was sure that it was finally over and tried his best to walk towards the back of the ship to wait for the door to open, but his legs were like jelly. How much of it was his nerves or his body still reacting to the ride there he didn't know.

"You doing okay there?"

Jacob gave Caleb a wavery thumbs up and started stumbling towards the door as light flooded in. After briefly covering his eyes, he lowered his hand to look out and was surprised to see that the landing pad seemed to be inside of an environmentally controlled dome that must have opened to let them in. There was some dust scattered around on the ground, but not nearly as much as there would be had they not been underneath some cover.

Finally making his way out of the ship and onto land (or, more accurately, the concrete that was laid on land) he realized his assumption was correct as he looked to his right then slowly upward and saw a devastating sandstorm swirling around them, held back by reinforced glass that served as the landing bay. That had to be technology either developed by the Lunar Sisters or the Grand Fleet, as Jacob couldn't even begin to think of glass that the PDE could fabricate that wouldn't eventually be worn down and destroyed by the constant barrage of sand and rocks, much less refrain from scratching and stay completely transparent after all this time.

There was a decent amount of people walking around the general area of the landing pad, moving from one building to the next, some of them slowing down to gawk at the smoking thruster of the transport. Most of them were humans and hellbenders, but multiple Lunar Sisters stood out like sore thumbs, towering over the rest of the crowd that eagerly gave them a wide berth, clearly intimidated by their sheer size. Some of them were wearing uniforms matching the one Caleb had, leading Jacob to assume that they were cadets at the academy and the rest must have been involved with other occupations like logistics and maintenance.

Waiting to greet them directly across from the pad at the administrative entrance to the academy proper were three figures. On one side was a Lunar Sister, perhaps some equivalent of a military police officer as her armor was white with dark blue stripes as opposed to black with yellow stripes that the infantry usually wore. The other one was a cyborg from the Grand Fleet. They were projecting a hologram of a human face in front of what constituted as their "head", behind which was most likely just a flat metal surface hiding various circuitry. Between them was a PDE security officer, a hellbender judging by her height. The badges on her uniform and helmet most likely designating her as the chief of security. Hellbenders were already on the shorter side, so seeing one standing right next to one of the titanic Lunar Sisters was almost comical. Caleb threw his bags over his shoulder and walked up to them. A green beam was emitted from the cyborg and scanned him. The Fleeter wasn't at the academy before he left, at least he hadn't seen him yet, so he was a bit offended at his first interaction being an unnaounced search. He tried his best to ignore his frustration, though. It shouldn't surprise him that a species made up entirely of cyborgs would have different social norms, and he wasn't excited at the prospect of starting a fight with six and a half feet of solid metal.

"You will find Malldeka waiting for you right outside of processing." The Lunar Sister's monotone voice would have made her sound either frustrated at his appearance or bored out of her mind had it not been for Caleb becoming accustomed to their odd way of speaking. "She has been incredibly enthusiastic about you returning here, Sargent Donovan."

"I bet." A dumb grin spread across his face. "How long has she been waiting?"

"Long enough to become rather impatient. I suggest you make haste."

He nodded and stepped forward, the door sliding up to accept him into the processing hall. Jacob attempted to follow him but he was immediately met with a loud buzz and the door slamming shut.

"Really? For fu-"

The hellbender grabbed his arm, interrupting him.

"Hold it. You're the accountant?"

Jacob could have sworn he felt her eyes burrowing into him behind the visor.

"Uh, payroll manager, yes."

Her voice sounded oddly familiar but extremely hard to place seeing as it was filtered through her helmet, and her surprise at seeing him made him feel uneasy. Then again, that might have just been his nerves still shaking from the flight.

"Well, you'll have to follow me. The security systems don't recognize you and you aren't ready for initial processing. Doors won't let you go in."

Jacob yanked at his arm and she let go, motioning for him to follow.

"How was your flight?" Despite the question being cordial her tone had a slight edge to it. Almost accusatory. Maybe she was just so used to her job that casual conversation sounded like interrogation?