A few months before Iron Five’s deployment on Keden
MIND GAMES
Year: 878 TE
System: Sol
Planet: Earth
Location: New York City, United Northern Alliance
Carlos Andrews walked into an upper class restaurant in downtown Manhattan. At seventy floors up, the view through the glass wall was mind blowing. Sky scrapers of silvery Everglass rose majestically from hundreds of rows of unseen streets, and copper colored transport hubs floated on thin air, filtering steady streams of traffic at varying altitudes.
Subdued music and soft chatter filled the room. A woman in a fitted, flowing azure dress approached and led him across the thick carpeted floor to a booth where a broad man in an exquisitely tailored suit sat alone.
“Terrier...Welcome...Sit.” The man’s voice was strong and brutish
“Thank you Sir.”
Across from them, at a table for four, three men appeared deep in conversation, but Carlos knew a bodyguard when he saw one. Sleek and stylish, they could have easily been passed over for high-level lawyers or traders, but the eyes...the eyes never lied. A soldier was a soldier regardless of his dress code and it was always the eyes that gave him away.
“We think the mole might be implementing something big...and soon...”
The big man stuffed his mouth with a forkful of meat before continuing “Your friend, you say that you are certain about him?”
“Huski is loyal to Earthfront, I’ll bet my life on it.”
“Then it must be one of the others.”
“They are all good men sir and I still don’t think this is right…”
“I understand your loyalty to your team. I understand how difficult it is to even imagine one of them in this light. But facts are facts and all evidence points to Iron Five. We know it’s not you, and you swear for Gant, but you can’t, to this day, be absolutely sure about the others.”
Carlos was silent and the man continued.
“Look, if your team is innocent, then there’s nothing to worry about after they’ve been investigated. But if not...”
There was no way around it. Iron Five was under surveillance and there was nothing Carlos could do about it. Regarding this mole however, that wasn’t the case. He had long decided to find the person responsible for his team’s scrutiny and expose them by any means necessary, and if he was lucky, by the time the rest of the guys found out, they’d be more than willing to forgive him for not giving them a heads-up.
“...get to Kona immediately...” The big man was still talking “...and await further instructions. Your next Earthfront op will re-deploy you on Keden. I have arranged for your team’s arrival there within the month. With patience and a little luck, we should prove Iron Five’s innocence, root out this traitor and put an end to this madness.”
“Yessir...” Carlos replied
He had been forbidden to talk to his team about the matter and with the threat of disbandment, court-martials, and jail time hanging over their heads; he thought it best to follow orders...for now.
A slight wave of the older man’s gold ringed fingers told him that he had been dismissed, and without further ado, he left the room.
*******
Carlos stepped onto a sky-deck outside the fancy restaurant and beyond a metal handrail, that separated life from death, a parking assistant brought his Dragonfly to rest against the edge of the open waiting area. With a few quick steps, he slid into the driver’s seat and let the gull-winged door seal shut. Then in the blink of an eye, the sleek aircar fell away from the building and blended seamlessly into a flowing river of traffic below.
Miles of sky lanes crisscrossed the city and millions of people sped to and fro in them. The Dragonfly’s navigation system kept it moving in sync with the tide and after fifteen minutes, Carlos ascended an off ramp, invisible to the human eye but clearly indicated on the cockpit windscreen, and continued his climb toward a monstrous disk that capped one of New York’s busiest spaceports.
Within minutes, he was parked and walking through a vast, bustling terminal where the sounds of technology and endless multitudes filled the air with an overwhelming, never ending hum. But implants made it possible to control the sound bombarding his ears by merely desiring it, just as his Dees provided information in the form of holographic images at the speed of thought. Everyone had them in a variety of models, but unlike the average civilian, Carlos’ implants were military issued.
Fifteen minutes later, he exited a lift that brought him to a private hangar on one of the highest levels of the complex and boarded an automated transport cart. The robot ferried its passenger to a ship a half a mile across the cavernous Eversteel room where rows of starships and other spacecraft slept peacefully in their slots. These belonged to New York’s most influential families and corporate heads; billion credit technology that none but the crème de la crème could afford.
Once aboard his ship, the Vanon; An Earthman Industries, Liberty Class vessel, prized by many for their easy space to surface capabilities, Carlos initiated the computer’s start up sequence and opened its digital communications module.
“La Guardia Space Command...Captain Andrews of Starship Vanon requesting departure from A-Deck to Vacuum.”
A flawless female voice responded “Captain Andrews of Starship Vanon, you are cleared for departure. Link up and go auto.”
“Copy clearance and link up...going auto.”
The spaceport’s auto guidance system took control of Carlos’s ship and the dull-grey, hundred ton, forward wing machine lifted effortlessly from the floor.
“Starship Vanon, you have guidance on link, window to Karis is open and rocket to station is a go. Please confirm.”
“Vanon copies rocket to Karis.”
Over the lively city and into the clouds, the Vanon shot skyward until the Earth hung beneath it like a beautiful marble and the floating city that was the Space Station Karis rushed into view. Carlos let the autopilot take him toward it but he would not be docking there.
“Starship Vanon...” his com came alive “...Karis Command has you on guidance...state intensions.”
“Karis Command…Vanon requests clearance for flyby to Triton.”
Five seconds passed
“Vanon, you have guidance for hyper light to Triton. Set course and sync up.”
Carlos activated his navigation module, punched in the co-ordinates for Neptune’s most popular moon, and then the Vanon disappeared from Earth’s orbit. Three hours later, he came out of the warp stream fifty thousand kilometers from Triton. Below and off to his right, the stunningly blue gas giant that was Neptune dominated the blackness of space but with a few quick adjustments, he took manual control of the ship and changed course to Proteus.
The Vanon approached the irregular moon and came to rest on a landing pad beside one of its many massive craters. Here, he would wait at Kona, a decommissioned Earthfront military storage base until he received his orders.