Chapter 29 - Arthros

  Psychosomatic Output: 10,000 Bio-Units

  Synaptic Rank: unbound

  Arthros left Hokku in a hurry, careful not to draw too much attention to his departure. He had intended not to tell the others, but Randrea and Graito caught him in the hangar. They begged to come with him, but he refused.

  A single HWND might be able to conduct the recon mission unnoticed; three would absolutely draw attention.

  His ship ascended and shot out from underneath the floating megalopolis. Leaving the weight of the city’s shadow provided an indescribable relief. As if the pressure of his responsibilities only dwelled beneath the shade.

  Orbit security didn’t bother to stop him; why would they? He had the most recognizable signature in the Hokku Navy. The Sovereignty might have labelled him a troublemaker, but he was still a Commander.

  The Reckless zipped through the border and entered open space. He had to take manual control to avoid a close call with a T7-Corvette that circled a little too close to the highway. Arthros glanced out the viewport and blinked in surprise.

  The entirety of the Hokku Navy was swarming the immediate space beyond the planet’s orbit.

  Arthros could hardly believe his eyes. He had never seen all four fleets amassed together. It was a majestic sight, and he couldn’t help the glimmer of pride he felt at the impressive display, though the wonder was short-lived.

  The fleets should be patrolling the borders, not gathered helplessly in Hokku space.

  The Navy comprised four fleets, and each fleet was home to five warships and fifteen T7-corvettes. Sprinkled amongst the various fleets were the seven remaining HWND divisions. Their Novawolfs twisted athletically through the ranks of ships, zipping and diving like a squadron of angry wasps.

  A part of Arthros longed to join the other pilots; what they were doing seemed like fun. Though what sort of pleasure could be derived without the presence of his division. They were the ones he really wanted to fly with.

  He pushed that thought out of his head and focused on the empty space beyond the fleet. Reloculan wasn’t far at top speeds, but it would still take some time to get there. He disengaged the manual controls and handed the Reckless over to Zero.

  The flight to Reloculan only lasted nine hours. He passed the time by digging through the archives Zero found before they had left. He had asked for any mention of a reptilian species in the neighbouring star systems.

  There were eighteen on the Hokkonian record, but only four shared the shamanistic, war-inclined characteristics. Of those four, there was an abysmally low amount of information. None of it was helpful, and it only served to frustrate him. Nonetheless, Arthros was so engrossed in his search that he was surprised when Zero notified them that they had arrived.

  He flicked his wrist to close the archived document floating on his palm and went to the cockpit. Sure enough, Reloculan’s yellow haze shimmered through the viewport. Even from this distance, the globe felt dead.

  More ghost-like than it had been a few nights prior.

  He thought back to merchant’s convoy, and his HWNDs ambush on the raiders. The memory of the ensuing massacre made him wince. Would there be anyone left alive to catch him on the surface?

  “Scan the orbit; I don’t want to fly into any nets,” Arthros muttered through his grimace.

  “Scanners indicate a small patrol from the northern hemisphere. Their defence system is virtually non-existent.”

  So, they weren’t all dead.

  “Map out a pattern; getting caught on the surface is fine, but we risk everything if we’re caught during entry.”

  It didn’t take the AI long to complete the task; the patrol Zero had detected was one of two, and both were too far away to cause an issue.

  Arthros brought The Reckless low to the desert terrain and switched the engine’s power to ensure a more reasonable planetary speed.

  “Keep on the scanners, Zero.”

  They skimmed the surface for a few hours and saw nothing but desolate desert and city ruins. There was a point when the planet had been a great power in Dromedar, with a population bursting at the seams. In the early years of colonization, Reloculan was a bitter enemy, and many battles had been fought over the various colonies that either civilization had sent out. That was before Arthros time and long before the existence of the HWNDs.

  It was hard to believe that Hokku’s military superiority wasn’t always evident. Reluclan discovered the hard way how quickly Hokku’s investment in their military paid off. The planet’s desolate remains were a testament to Hokku’s cruel ingenuity and vicious retaliations.

  Ironically, Hokku didn’t look much different.

  “I’m picking up a cluster of biologicals a hundred kilometres east.” Zero’s voice tore Arthros from his thoughts.

  “Finally.”

  She locked onto the signature, and several dozen dots appeared on the monitor before them. He steered the ship in that direction, and within a few minutes, they were close enough.

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  “Keep the ship running, I won’t be long.” He ordered.

  He didn’t bother to wait for her reply and jogged to the back of the ship, where his locker stood waiting. Every Novawolf was equipped with interior access, which allowed a pilot to climb inside their HWND without ever having to land—a particularly useful feature during dog fights or space skirmishes.

  Arthros felt that familiar rush of ecstasy as the HWND powered on. The floor opened to reveal the sandy terrain of Relocuan’s surface, and Arthros disengaged the locking mechanism and the mech hurtled towards the ground. It collided with a dune, sending a plume of sand and dust into the air.

  He climbed out of the divot, his enhanced vision gaining focus immediately as he magnified toward the horizon. A thin trail of smoke was easily visible, the only sign of life on this barren planet.

  He crossed the barren desert in a few seconds and halted on a ridge line that separated him from the source of the smoke. Over the years, he had meticulously refined his motor skills, which served him well. He could creep up the dune in his giant HWND with as much lithe grace as a predatory feline.

  He looked over the ridge of the dune and stifled a curse. The camp was full of Reloculans and great lizard-like beasts. He did a quick count and swore again. Close to a hundred Shadari stalked, lounged, and prowled in the sands.

  So many already?

  That was the consequence of the Sovereignty’s stupidity. The Shadari invaders had already capitalized on Hokku’s mistake; how many lives would be lost because of it?

  All from a single breach point in the Storm, too…

  On the far side of camp, he saw a familiar sight, and black hatred rose like vomit in his throat: the union ship that had escaped him earlier, and the blonde-haired woman who had defied him.

  She stood on the landing ramp with another Shadari, one far bigger than the rest. He watched as they argued over something, and then the two of them walked back into the ship.

  The cruiser’s engines roared to life, and the ship sped off.

  So, his suspicions were correct, and the Union was a partner in all of this. He felt sick with rage over the betrayal. Was the Union so quick to turn its back on Hokku’s services? How many pirates and otherworldly forces had they defeated so Dromedar could thrive?

  Just so the Union could ‘govern’ a star system that rightfully belonged to Hokku.

  A rumbling from below him interrupted his thoughts. The sand around him started to shift, and based on the range of the tremors, the submerged thing was impossibly massive.

  He leapt out of his hiding spot, and the ARC blade slid from its sheath on his arm.

  A giant, hairy appendage burst forth from the sand, directly where he had once been kneeling. Followed by another, and then another, until eight gargantuan legs probed the surface. With a heave, the monster's body rose above the surface in a thunderous cascade of sand.

  The arachnid was one of the largest biological creatures Arthros had ever seen. Each leg was the length of two HWNDs, and its body matched the Reckless’ entire bulk.

  “I’ve never experienced your heartrate spike so rapidly, did the creature harm you?” Zero sounded alarmed.

  Arthro took a tentative step back, unwilling to take his eyes off the monstrous arachnid.

  “Arthros?”

  “Would you be quiet?” He hissed.

  Zero’s alarm was replaced with confusion, “The bug can’t hear us- “

  A hair-raising chitter escaped the arachnid’s maw, announcing Arthros’ presence to any who was within in earshot. The sound was unlike anything Arthros had heard before, and his spines erected despite himself.”

  He sheathed the ARC blade, “Yeah, I’m out.”

  The Arachnid charged, but he was already bounding away. Even with eight legs, the creature had no hope in keeping up with the HWND’s speed.

  “Bring the Reckless around; we have to catch up to the Union ship!”

  The creature galloped behind him, eight legs pounding the sand in spine-tingling rhythm.

  “Are you running away?” Incredulity was evident in her tone.

  “Absolutely not!” He snapped.

  Cowed, Zero fell silent. A few moments later, the Reckless appeared on the horizon. He ignited the HWND’s pulse engines, and their hum of power drowned out the angry chittering of the arachnid.

  The Reckless sped close, and with an athletic twist of his body, the HWND maneuvered mid-flight to grab hold of the Novawolf’s hull. The instant change in direction nearly ripped his shoulder from his socket, and he felt the HWND’s fingertips slip on the ship’s exterior metal plating.

  “Track the Union ship; we already have the deep scan, so just lock onto the signature!”

  “You need to dock first before I exit the atmosphere.” Zero’s flat tone responded.

  “Just do it!”

  He swore he could hear her sigh, “I don’t like it when you yell at me.”

  The ship violently accelerated to meet exit velocity requirements. His grip slipped, and if it didn’t activate the magnetic locks in his feet and hands, The Reckless would have sent him spinning in the wake of its exhaust.

  He crawled along the ship's hull towards the HWND docking bay like a four-legged animal. The joints of his rig groaned under the pressure, but he could slink his way along the belly of the ship. The pressure from the wind vanished as he crawled into the docking station’s provided shelter. Moments later, the clasps clanged into place, and he could climb out the mech.

  “Did you find the signature?” He asked as he ran to the Reckless cockpit.

  Silence.

  “Zero?”

  “Working on it, you let them get quite far away.”

  He frowned, “Let them? I was never going to stop them.”

  “Are we going to talk about the spider?”

  Arthros growled a warning.

  A beat later, “Found them.”

  “Well?

  A soft chime sounded from the console as a tiny dot appeared on the screen.

  “They’re going to Kleth’altho.”

  “Good, send a report to the Admiral and ask her a question for me.” Arthros said, still staring at the dot headed for Kleth’altho.

  “What?”

  “Tell her I want information on Lucas Riley, Jericho’s father, and for Tril’s sake she better give me full clearance, I want to know everything.”

  “Yes Arthros.”

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