Future Shadows: Chapter 6

6
Zenith Jump Point
Unnamed K0 V Star, Deep Periphery
21 October 3039

The city looked like a war zone, because it was. Buildings were damaged and scorched, most of the windows were blown out, rubble lay in piles on the streets, and burnt-out vehicles littered the roadways. Smoke drifted from many of the structures and ash was in the air. There was no sign of life – but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there.
    Moving as cautiously as she could in a ten-meter-tall robot, Sayuki edged her Panther around the corner of an apartment building riddled with bullet strikes and into the street. She turned the ‘Mech’s head back and forth, scanning, and kept its right arm – which was equipped with a PPC – raised and ready to fire. The street seemed clear apart from all the debris. Stepping over a destroyed van, she continued her way forward.
    “See anything yet, baby?” came Ian’s voice from the comm system.
    “Iie, beloved. So far, nothing.”
    Ian’s Valkyrie stepped into the road about a hundred meters behind her. “I don’t like it. Things are too quiet. That’s when you get ambushed.”
    “Hai, I agree.”
    When Sayuki reached an open square, she halted her Panther and waited for her husband to join her. Ian’s Valkyrie soon arrived, searching the area as well. An observer might have found it amusing that each of the MechWarriors were piloting machines distinctly identifiable with their nationalities. The Valkyrie was a design unique to the Federated Suns (although it could be found in increasing numbers in the Lyran Commonwealth)  and the Panther, while originally built for the Star League, was these days only used in large numbers by the Draconis Combine.
    Ian felt a brief surge of alarm when he saw a BattleMech on the other side of the huge square – until he realised the machine was as wrecked as the groundcars nearby. It was a Quickdraw, a 60-ton ‘Mech of very humanoid design. It had fallen back into a two-storey building, its legs stuck out into the square, its torso partly supported by the rubble beneath it. There was heavy damage all over – the lower part of its left arm was missing, there were several holes in its chest, its right foot was almost detached, and the front of its head was blasted. Sayuki pointed with her Panther’s left arm. Opposite the Quickdraw, perhaps fifty or sixty meters away, was the ruined hulk of a Centurion, another very humanoid design. It was lying facedown in the square, its right leg completed blown away. There wasn’t much armour left anywhere on its battered frame, and the rear hatch in the head was open.
    “Nasty.”
    Sayuki nodded in agreement. “Hai. Wait! Did you hear that?””
    “Hear what?” Ian asked.
    “Turn up the gain on your external microphones. I thought I heard an engine.”
    Ian tapped a switch in his cockpit. “‘Mech?”
    “Iie, more like a–”
    As if in reply, a large vehicle rumbled out of a narrow side-street off to their left, crushing the loose brick and other debris under its tracks. It was a fair-sized tank weighing in at 60 tons, with a main gun and missile launchers mounted on its turret. It was painted in urban camouflage and the emblem of the Capellan Confederation was emblazoned on its hull.
    “Ian, what kind of tank is that?” Sayuki asked.
    “Damn, that’s a Bulldog,” Ian replied. “Watch it – they can be trouble.”
    The Bulldog crested the top of a pile of rubble, swivelled its turret in their direction, and fired. Its main gun was a heavy laser, but the beam missed Sayuki’s Panther and burned a hole through a shop on the opposite side of the square. It followed up with its twin SRM-4 racks, and five of the eight missiles struck home. Four exploded across her Panther’s torso and one struck the left leg, damaging the armour.
    Sayuki had never fought a tank before, which was why she genuinely saw it as a serious threat. Like Cera and Garadun she was a Solaris gladiator, and they didn’t face tanks in the arenas, only other BattleMechs. Regular MechWarriors from academies and mercenary apprentices who served in House forces and crack mercenary units tended to scoff at tanks, seeing them as inferior to ‘Mechs. And while BattleMechs did have a lot of advantages over tanks, the traditional war machines were still dangerous, especially the heavier designs. The Bulldog was a reliable medium tank.
    Sayuki retaliated. She put her targeting receptacle on the tank and fired both her PPC and her own SRM-4 launcher. The man-made lightning of the PPC blasted into the right side of the tank, slagging half its armour and destroying the track as well, crippling it. Three of her short range missiles found the mark, blowing off more armour. Worse than that, though, one of the missiles blew through a weak spot in the hull and stunned the crew – although neither Sayuki or Ian were aware of it yet.
    Ian didn’t fire his LRM rack at the Bulldog – he was too close for that – but he did shoot it with the medium laser that occupied his BattleMech’s right forearm. He hit the turret, melting armour right where the turret turned on its ring, locking it in place. With a track gone and a locked turret, to say nothing of a stunned crew, the tank was out of the fight. With it just sitting there, Ian and Sayuki quickly crossed the square and stepped over to the vehicle’s left side.
    “So much for that piece of junk,” Ian remarked, chuckling.
    “Easy for you to say,” Sayuki countered. “You didn’t get hit with its missiles.”
    “Well, I did tell you they could be trouble. Come on, let’s keep looking.”

Roughly two kilometres away, Alexandra and Erik were hunting through the city with equal caution. The mission was fairly straightforward: find the enemy BattleMechs and take them out before they could be extracted. Jimmy had come up with the scenario as both a training tool and a way to have some fun.
    To that end, Garadun and Cera had volunteered to be the hunted (no surprise there) and their fellow Fusiliers were trying to catch them. One of the game rules that Jimmy had set down was that everyone had to be in light BattleMechs. People could take and even customise whatever they wanted from the database, but it had to be a light ‘Mech. To make things even more challenging and unpredictable, Jimmy would be roaming around in a tank, attacking anyone he came across. If he got destroyed, he would simply “re-spawn” in a new vehicle. Everyone else only got one life.
    Alexandra had chosen a Commando, a well-respected model belonging to the Lyran Commonwealth. Weighing in at 25 tons, the stylish BattleMech was armed with an SRM-6 launcher in the centre torso, an SRM-4 launcher in the right arm, and a medium laser in the left arm. It was fast and its ample firepower made it a dangerous opponent for other light ‘Mechs. Erik was also piloting a Commando, but had swapped out the medium laser for a flamer. His real-world ride was a custom Assassin that sported a pair of flamers, and he was used to having the incendiary weapon at his disposal.
    As for what Cera and Garadun were piloting, no-one knew apart from Jimmy, and he of course wasn’t saying. But whatever BattleMechs they had, they would undoubtedly be customised. The long-time partners never used “off the rack” if they had a choice.
    Alexandra and Erik carefully emerged from an avenue littered with the shells of burnt-out groundcars and a couple of destroyed APCs, and surveyed the area before them. It was the parking lot of a huge, multi-storey shopping complex. Off to their right the still-smoking remains of a Firestarter lay atop sever crushed aircars. Ahead of them on the far side of the lot was a battered Wolverine. It had fallen backwards into part of the mall and was lying in a pile of bricks and cinderblocks, as well as plaster, roofing materials, furniture and other debris. Erik was impressed with the level of detail Jimmy had put into the scenario. It was incredibly realistic.
    “Are you picking up anything on your sensors?” Alexandra asked.
    “Negative, my Lady,” Erik replied. “There’s so much metallic junk around that magscan is fairly useless. Not a lot on thermal, either.”
    Alexandra moved into the parking lot with Erik just behind and on her right. The ruined city was the perfect place for their quarry to hide, and Cera and Garadun had a frustrating knack for being sneaky. That Jimmy was wandering around out there in a tank, ready to attack anyone and everyone, made things even more dicey.
    Alexandra lifted her BattleMech’s right hand. “Hold on. I’m getting something on my seismic detector. Something coming in from the west, and moving fast.”
    “I’m getting the same reading,” said Erik, lifting his Commando’s arms.
    Alexandra moved forward, stepping on abandoned aircars as she went. Her external microphones picked up the distinctive thud thud thud of a running BattleMech, and it was getting louder. Then the source of the sound came into view. Half a block away from the parking lot, a Locust ran by, its birdlike legs hurtling it along at top speed down the road, moving from west to east.
    “That has to be one of them!” Erik declared triumphantly.
    “Erik, be careful!” Alexandra warned, but he was already hurrying forward out of the parking lot. With nothing for it, Alexandra gave her BattleMech full throttle to keep up. In moments they were across the lot and into the avenue. Erik turned right and saw the Locust braking a couple hundred meters ahead as it came to an intersection. It skidded and slid a bit on the cracked pavement, but didn’t lose control and managed to make a sharp left turn. Erik got his ‘Mech’s right arm up to take a shot with his SRM-4 rack, but the Locust stomped out of sight before he could even begin to get a lock.
    Alexandra’s motion detector beeped an alert, and she spun to her left just in time to see what the Locust had been running from. Bearing down on them was a Saracen medium hover tank. It was painted in urban camouflage and the emblem of the Capellan Confederation was emblazoned on its hull. Seeing the pair of Commandos, the tank hit its air brakes to avoid a collision. At less than sixty meters away it was far too close to use its LRM rack, but its trio of SRM-2 launchers spat out a half-dozen missiles at Alexandra. Two of them blew off chunks of armour from her left arm; the rest overshot and did yet more damage to the already battered cityscape.
    Alexandra shot back with everything she had, not caring that her heat monitor was spiking into the red zone. The medium laser in her Commando’s left armed missed, but she got target locks with her pair of SRM launchers. Six out of ten missiles struck the Saracen, to devastating effect. Not only was the hover tank’s front armour reduced by half, but its LRM launcher jammed and, far worse still, one missile breached the hull and destroyed the engine. The Saracen collapsed to the ground, immobilised.
    “Nicely done, my Lady!” said Erik, turning to face the tank.
    “Damn, the turret’s still active,” said Alexandra when her computer warned her that the tank was again trying to get a weapons lock.
    “Flip the bugger,” Erik told her with a smirk. “That’ll take care of things.”
    That actually wasn’t a bad idea, and would save on ammunition. Alexandra nodded to herself and quickly crouched down to grab the tank by the front of its hull. But as she was doing that, they heard the sound of jump jets. It was a sound no MechWarrior could fail to recognise, but the recognition came too late in this case.
    With a roar and sudden cut-off of those jump jets, a BattleMech came rocketing out of the sky to land directly behind Erik. It was a Stinger, painted with a unique urban camo pattern. Rather than the usual blotches of assorted shades of grey, it was painted with areas of brick and concrete. It also lacked the medium laser Stingers normally carried in their right hand. Chest panels flipped open to reveal three machine guns mounted in either side of its torso. They mercilessly opened up on Erik’s exposed back.
    Machine guns are normally used on infantry and not considered much of a threat to a BattleMech. But a half-dozen linked together at the same time? They blazed away at the left torso, shredding the paper-thin armour and utterly annihilating the internal structure and sending the left arm spinning to the ground. The Stinger walked the fire from left to right, almost eradicating the armour on its spine. It tried to kick the Commando and missed, but slugged it with both its fists. Its right smashed away almost all the armour protecting the right torso; the left punched through into its spine and damaged the SRM-6 launcher, rendering it inoperable. This was a moot point, however, because the ammo cassette for the SRM had been stored in the now-destroyed left torso.
    Alexandra could do nothing to help – flipping the Saracen over was taking all her concentration. Erik turned around to face his attacker, only to see the Stinger crouch and then leap out of sight on a blaze of jump jet plasma. Worse still, the Locust returned. It ran back into view and came rushing down the street right at him. It skidded to a halt perhaps twenty meters away and opened up with its lasers. A Locust normally had a Martell medium laser and a pair of machine guns. This one had four small lasers instead of machine guns. The medium laser struck the Commando’s right flank, vaporising almost all the armour. One small laser took half the armour off the BattleMech’s right arm. The other three melted the armour on the centre torso and damaged the framework.
    Unfortunately for Erik, the assault didn’t stop there. Not for nothing had Cera and Garadun survived four years in the arenas of Solaris. When Garadun had jumped his Stinger, he hadn’t been retreating. While clearing the way for Cera to attack in her Locust, he’d been executing a risky maneuver known as Death From Above.
    His jump jets vaulted his Stinger high into the air and he came crashing down on top of Erik’s Commando. One foot nearly ripped off the Commando’s entire right arm, the other hit it smack in the head. Erik’s BattleMech was sent hurtling to the ground, careening backwards straight into Alexandra. He actually managed to fire off his SRM-4 rack at the Locust as he went down, but the missiles went spiralling off into the air. He smashed into Alexandra; she dropped the hover tank and it landed upside-down. She also went down, crashing onto her right side and damaging the armour on her right leg before landing face-down in the street. Erik hit the ground flat on his back after stumbling into his commander, and the impact further destroyed his ‘Mech’s centre torso.
    In his simulator pod, all the main screens went off and the computer informed him that the fall had knocked him unconscious. Erik swore so loudly you could hear it from the control station in the simulator room.
    Garadun’s Stinger stumbled backwards after the impressive collision, but he managed to get it under control and not fall over. That would have been really embarrassing. He’d ripped away most of the armour on his BattleMech’s left leg in the dangerous stunt, but it was worth it. Erik was down and out, and Alexandra was on the ground.
    But not for long. She soon had her Commando back on its feet, and turned to face off against her attackers. Cera actually turned around and ran off down the street and around the corner, once again out of sight. Garadun jumped his Stinger to land right behind Alexandra, something she knew he’d do. Getting in close quarters with Garadun Morr in a ‘Mech battle was bloody dangerous because this was what he did best.
    Once again he opened up with his machine guns, ripping into Alexandra’s exposed back. Shell casings flew through the air and the linked weapons cut through the weak armour on her centre torso like a buzz saw – and then into the internal structure. The Commando was shredded and flew apart in pieces. In her simulator pod, Alexandra saw her whole world come apart, and then all the screens went blank and the computer told her she was dead. She cursed and punched the arm of her chair.

In his own simulator pod, Jimmy wasn’t especially happy either. Twice in a row he’d gotten his ass shot off in the first salvo. No wonder MechWarriors scoffed at tanks. He checked the current standings and saw that Alexandra had been blown to bits and Erik knocked out. Heh. So much for academy training. He’d put his money on Solaris ‘Mech jocks any day, especially if they were Kuroda and Morr.
    Jimmy brought up the menu. “Right, time to find something bigger.”

Sayuki gave a surprised start when there a brief knock on her simulator pod door, which then slid open. To her further surprise she saw it was Alexandra. The beautiful blonde looked at Sayuki with a quirky smile.
    “It seems your commanding officer is dead,” she said, sighing.
    Sayuki frowned. “Oh, dear. Say, isn’t this against the rules? You being here?”
    Alexandra snickered. “What are rules to the dead?”
    “What about Erik?”
    “He gotten taken out as well. Unconscious, not dead, but still out.”
    “By Jimmy?”
    “No, the terror twins. Both of us, gunned down in moments.” Alexandra shook her head. “But I’ll leave you to it. Best of luck.”
    “Domo, Alexandra-sama.” Alexandra shut the door. “Ian, did you hear that?”
    “Yeah, baby, I did,” Ian replied. “I’m glad this is just a simulation.”

With his Stinger crouched on the roof of a fifteen-storey building, Garadun scanned the city for the remaining hunters. For him and Cera the solution to avoiding capture was fairly straightforward: go on the offensive. Hiding in this case was simply a matter of staying out of sight until they were in the right position for an ambush.
    Mobility was key. Their BattleMechs might be the smallest and lightest around, but they were also fast and agile. Cera’s Locust was unmatched for flat-out running speed, and his Stinger could jump a long ways. It was why he was where he was right now. There were a lot of legends about MechWarriors becoming one with their machines, but that’s all they were: legends. Garadun wasn’t one with his machine, but he did use it as if it were a giant person. If a human sniper or scout could keep watch from the top of a building, then why not a humanoid BattleMech? Cera was on the streets below, keeping an eye on things there while he searched from on high.
    This was how they’d found Alexandra and Erik, then set and sprung their trap with Jimmy’s unwitting help. Garadun had spotted the hover tank and relayed its position to Cera. She in turn let Jimmy spot her, and he obligingly gave chase, following her right to the pair of Commandos, thanks to her partner telling her which way to go. Now it was time for Ian and Sayuki. They would be more of a challenge because both their BattleMechs were jump-capable, but Cera was certain they could ambush them as well.
    “See ‘em yet, Gar?” Cera asked.
    “No, not yet. There’s a lot of…hold on.”
    “What?”
    “Think I got movement.” Garadun turned the telescopic sight to maximum as he studied the south side of the city. It was daytime so he wasn’t using starlight or thermal, and magscan and seismic were useless from up here. Not to mention he preferred his own eyes over other sensors. Trusted them more.
    There was a telltale plume of dust – faint and hard to see but it was there – that gave away the position of a moving vehicle. In a war-torn city like this one there was a great deal of ash and dust and dirt to get pushed into the air by walking BattleMechs or moving vehicles. It moved between the buildings, obviously along a road.
    “I think it must be Jimmy,” Garadun informed Cera. “There’s only one bit of dust cloud, and its steady – not puffy like footsteps.”
    “Any sign of the lovebirds?” Cera asked, and he could hear her smile.
    “I’m not – hang on. Yeah, there we are,” said Garadun with a smirk. “A Valkyrie just jumped a couple of blocks. Aaaaaand…here we go. A Panther followed it. I’m gonna guess Ian’s in the Valkyrie and Sayuki’s in the Panther.”
    “How far away are they?”
    “About three klicks from here, to the southeast. Jimmy’s to the west.” Garadun got a wicked grin on his face. “Wanna play tag again?”
    Cera laughed. “You betcha! I’ll lead them to Jimmy and we can mop up what’s left.”
    “Sounds good to me. Okay, head straight down that street right in front of us. I’ll tell you when to turn left.”
    “You got it.” Cera’s Locust was off and running.

The Locust was a damnably frustrating target. Even on streets filled with debris it was bloody fast and nimble. Its pilot was highly skilled and knew how to dodge and weave through the city streets as it evaded fire. Sayuki got the occasional pot-shot at it with her PPC, but it was moving so fast she hadn’t hit it once. The same applied to Ian and his LRM launcher – and he was even more careful because unlike Sayuki he had a very limited supply of ammunition: only twelve volleys of missiles.
    They had tried their best to use their jump jets to somehow box the Locust in, trap it on a street with them bracketing it, but it always seemed to have a way out. Nor was it fighting back, but simply trying to avoid being shot at. Which was understandable. It was fast, but one hit with a PPC would disable and possibly destroy it.
    “There! There it is!” Sayuki cried, pointing with her ‘Mech’s right arm. The Locust dashed into the road ahead of them from a side-street. Sayuki fired at it with her PPC, but because of range and the Locust’s speed, she missed. Ian unleashed a volley from his LRM launcher, the ten missiles arcing up into the air before corkscrewing down after their target. The Locust jinked along the road and the missiles missed.
    Then it took a sudden left and vanished from sight.
    Ian and Sayuki jumped after it. They cleared buildings and landed in the street the Locust had turned on, and caught a glimpse of it clambering over a pile a rubble as it made a right onto another side-street. They continued chasing it, Ian in the lead. His Valkyrie was more than 20 kph faster than his wife’s Panther, and could jump 30 meters farther. Ahead of him was an intersection. He ran into it, quickly looking right, forward, and left on his monitors. What he saw to his left made him yell in fright. Sayuki came running full-tilt to her man’s side, ready to help defend him. About 180 meters down the road on their left was a Schrek PPC carrier. It was a heavy tank, an 80-ton monster with three PPCs mounted in its turret.
    Everyone opened fire at about the same time: blue PPC beams and red lasers and missiles streaking through the air, seeking targets to destroy. Two of the Schrek’s PPCs narrowly missed Ian’s Valkyrie, but the third hit the left arm and annihilated all its armour, damaging the metal bones and myomer muscles beneath. Ian missed with both his medium laser and his long-range missiles, the latter exploding just behind the tank. Sayuki also missed with the missiles from her SRM launcher, but her PPC fried more than half a ton of armour from the Schrek’s front hull.
    Not feeling particularly suicidal, both Ian and Sayuki jumped their BattleMechs well clear of the tank’s line of fire, putting a block’s worth of buildings between it and them.
    “Holy crap!” Ian exclaimed. “Jimmy’s in a bloody Schrek!”
    “The Innsbruck Militia have one, remember?” Sayuki recalled. “I bet he got the idea from them. Maybe we can flank him?”
    “Possibly. It’s nasty, but it’s slow.”
    “Or we could keep after the Locust. That’s our real objective.”
    “Yeah, I like that idea better,” said Ian, wiping sweat from his forehead. “Come on, let’s forget the damn tank. I think the Locust went north.”

As the Leopard class DropShip landed on a huge open field west of the city, a Locust and a Stinger came running out of the ruins to meet up with it. The plan to have Jimmy slug it out with Ian and Sayuki hadn’t panned out. The happy couple hadn’t been stupid enough to risk a fight with a Schrek, and from his new vantage point of a ten-storey office building, Garadun had been able to watch them move well clear of the slow-moving but deadly tank. He directed Cera to the west, far out of their path, and then rendezvoused with her a short time later. From there they made their way to the extraction site.
    Although the long-time partners enjoyed a scrap, they weren’t stupid. Both Ian and Sayuki’s BattleMechs outweighed their own, and their jump jets made them equally manoeuvrable. They’d executed a very solid ambush on Alexandra and Erik, whose ‘Mechs lacked jump jets, and taken them out. They couldn’t guarantee the same with Ian and Sayuki. And their mission was escape, not getting blown up.
    They stepped into the DropShip’s open ‘Mech bays and turned around – with Cera settling her Locust in a crouch and Garadun’s Stinger holding onto a ‘Mech-scaled handrail. The Leopard slowly lifted off the ground, and Garadun waved. A minute later, with the view of a shrinking city below them, the scenario came to an end. They got out of their pods and smiled at each other across the simulator room.
    “Now that was fun!” Cera declared happily.
    “You!” Ian stalked over to Cera in amused, mock outrage. He gave her a shake. “You were piloting that Locust, weren’t you?”
    Cera laughed. “Damn right. And did I ever lead you two on a merry chase!”
    Sayuki came over and took her husband’s hand, and Alexandra, Jimmy and Erik joined them. Garadun strolled over and did a knuckle-bump with his partner.
    “Did you see how this lunatic had his Stinger configured?” said Erik, baffled. “Six machine guns! Who puts six machine guns on a scout ‘Mech?”
    “Me, obviously,” Garadun replied with a cheesy grin. “Worked, didn’t it?”
    “I’ll say,” said Alexandra, shaking her head. “Blew me to bits.”
    “But how?” Ian asked.
    “Simple. I gave up my laser, half a ton of machine gun ammo, and one of my jump jets for the weight,” Garadun explained. “At point-blank range: BANG.”
    “I’d like to know how they managed to evade us all that time,” said Erik.
    “Fairy dust,” Cera told him, giggling.
    “No, seriously.”
    “Well, I don’t know about you guys,” said Ian, “but we chased her for several klicks before we ran into Jimmy and his tank from hell.”
    “Chase nothing,” Cera countered, resting her arm on Garadun’s shoulder. “I was leading you right to him. We wanted you to follow me.”
    “We were hoping you and Jimmy would blow each other to bits, but that didn’t pan out,” Garadun added. “But our first ambush did.”
    “All right: how?” Alexandra demanded.
    Garadun sighed, sharing a glance with Cera. “Simple. At the start of the game, we zeroed in on one of the tallest buildings in the city. I jumped up to the top and spied out where you guys were. From there I directed Cera to act as the ‘fox’ for you ‘hounds’ to chase. She led Jimmy right to you, and we used that distraction to ambush you. As they were closing in, so was I. As soon as you were busy taking out the tank, we moved in and took you out. With you dead, we resumed our spot and began looking for Ian and Sayuki. Once I had a bead on them, I had Cera lead them to Jimmy. But since that fight didn’t work as planned, we decided it was time to stop screwing around and make our escape. Which we did. Game over.”
    Erik was dumbstruck. “You mean you were playing with us?”
    “Sort of,” Cera replied unashamedly. “The DropShip was only due to arrive at a predetermined time, so we figured it was better to go on the offensive than to try and just sit and wait it out, or sneak through the city. We had to make the rendezvous, but we didn’t want to get risk getting caught trying to get there.”
    “It was a tactical decision,” Garadun added. “Best defence is a good offence and all that. It’s what we did in the arenas.”
    “We had wee little ‘Mechs,” Cera went on. “A stand-up fight is stupid, even against other light ‘Mechs – and all yours were heavier than ours.”
    “So we went for sneaky and ambush.”
    “And then run away real fast,” Cera concluded with a big grin.
    “Well, clearly your plan worked,” Alexandra conceded. “And we can all learn from it. Congratulations, the both of you.”
    Garadun offered his hand to Erik. “No hard feelings, man?”
    Erik smiled and shook hands. “Of course not. It was an unorthodox plan, but I have to admit, a damned good one. You should write a paper on it and submit it to the Tamar War College when we get back home.”
    “Ha! Like they’d accept anything from a Solaris bum like me,” said Garadun with a dismissive wave of his hand.
    “Academies are too stuffy and fatheaded,” Cera agreed. “If you don’t fit in with their narrow little world, they kick you out. Like they did with Alexandra.”
    “Which was monumentally stupid,” Garadun added.
    “But good for us,” Cera continued, beaming at Alexandra. “Because of their stupidity, we got the best mercenary commander in the galaxy as our boss.”
    “Damn straight.”
    Alexandra blushed as the others chimed in with their hearty agreement, and once again she felt honoured and privileged to lead such a group of loyal warriors.