The Last Aeon by Richard Fox

Author:Richard Fox [Fox, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-07-20T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Rain lashed against Santos’s Armor as he walked through the storm. He was at the front of the loose formation, with Gideon and Aignar both a few dozen yards behind him and to either side. The IR systems could barely maintain coherency in the storm and Gideon had forbade any other radio transmissions for fear the Kesaht might detect them.

Even though he knew his lance mates were in the same storm, marching through the rain—which almost flew sideways with the wind gusts—was a solitary experience. His suit’s inertial navigation system kept him on track to an occupied spaceport on the other side of a mountain range. While he could barely see more than a few yards with his standard optics, he likened the travel to driving down a road at night. Even with only headlights, one could get to where they needed to go so long as they stayed on the road.

“Santos,” Gideon said to him on a private channel, the transmission laced with static from moisture interference.

“On point, nothing significant to report,” Santos said.

“Heard. Where were you during the recent…incident on Mars?” the captain asked.

Santos looked over a shoulder to where Aignar’s shadow lumbered through the rain. The other Armor wasn’t part of this conversation and couldn’t step in to keep him from stepping on his own tongue.

“Gunnery drills on Titan, sir,” he replied. “There was a system-wide lockdown while the Ibarran incursion was underway.”

“What did your cadre tell you about the Ibarrans?”

“That there was a jailbreak. Illegal Ibarran procedurals rescued—I mean, escaped—from some secret prison on Mars. Something about spies. Most of our maintenance crew had to go through naissance inspections. Blood tests to make sure they weren’t Ibarran spies. They were not happy about that. The Naissance Act is pretty explicit about birth circumstances not being used against anyone.”

“Such is the nature of the war we’re in,” Gideon said. “The Ibarras poisoned the minds of a number of Union citizens before they turned traitor. Used them as sleeper agents and then killed them once they weren’t of any use. Disposable tools—that’s all human beings are to the Ibarras.”

“No argument there,” Santos said. “Then…then there was the Templar in the same prison.” He winced, readying for a sharp retort from his commander.

“And what of the Templar?” Gideon asked, a dangerous edge to his words.

“Traitors,” Santos said quickly. “All of them. They refused to carry out the Omega Provision as ordered and defected to the Ibarras. One of my sister training lances had a Templar as a cadre, but she was recalled to Mars shortly before the incident.”

“You understand that they’re our enemies now. No matter what they did for the Union or who they used to be,” Gideon said.

“Understood, sir,” Santos said, though in his heart, he was less than convinced. Just how so many Armor could abandon the Union so quickly…there must have been more to the story than what he’d heard through official channels, but poking around for details did not strike him as a smart move.

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