The Stars, Our Destination

"Admiral Kotch."

"Captain Reyes."

"Rear admiral, actually. One benefit of this war is that I've managed to jump up a few ranks."

"Is SATO really so short of officers that they've given you a silver star?"

"Considering the SDF's current status, I'm not sure if you're in a position to talk to me about a lack of manpower."

Silence lingered between the two men, and not from any light lag. The Retribution and its accompanying fleet were close enough to Mars that they could communicate without any noticeable delays. For a moment, Reyes wondered if he'd erred – Salen Kotch was many things, but stupid wasn't among them. He'd given him his rank, revealed that SATO knew how few SDF forces were left, and he was conducting this negotiation without clearance from the UNSA.

"Also," Reyes said. "I've managed to defeat you enough times to earn that star."

Still, being a rear admiral didn't come without perks. So, yes, he was going to talk to Salen Kotch directly via viewscreen through his quarters. He was going to try and do what UNSA negotiators had failed to accomplish. He was going to try and bring this war to an end without entailing an invasion of Mars.

"Maybe," Kotch said. Reyes watched him lean back in his chair, in some office in some base, deep below the Martian surface. "Course, I've got three more stars than you. So it wouldn't behove either of us, now that we're being so honest with each other, to state that taking Mars will be a pushover."

"Maybe," Reyes said, forcing a smile. "You wouldn't lie to me, would you Salen?"

"No."

"That's a lie right there."

Salen Kotch laughed. Honestly, humanely, laughed. For one, brief, fleeting moment, Nick Reyes forgot about Geneva. About Luna. About Io, about Titan, about Mercury…about the entire war. About everything the SDF had done in Kotch's name. Forgot everyone he'd lost, everyone he'd ordered to their deaths, every screwed up thing that had plagued humanity this past year. Everything. All of it.

But only for a moment.

"Fine," Kotch said. "I tell lies, you tell lies, so what's there left to say?"

Reyes opened his mouth.

"And let's not go over the same territory your negotiators did. I'm not interested in terms of surrender, any more than my men are."

And closed it, remaining silent. For a moment, he wished the Retribution was more than 1.2 light seconds away from Mars. A longer time lag would give him more time to prepare his responses.

"Well?" Kotch said. "Anything?"

Time, he reflected. Time, always running out on him, always catching up to him, always ready to stab him in the back while-

"Olympus Mons," he blurted out.

"What?"

"Olympus Mons," he repeated.

"Yes, I know about Olympus Mons," Kotch snapped. "It's the tallest mountain in the solar system, it's my flagship…the same flagship that's going to make taking Mars an impossible feat for SATO, but-"

"It's got FTL technology," Reyes said. Kotch opened his mouth, but he continued, "don't deny it Kotch. We know it, and you know we know it. You've been jumping around the system this past year, and our approximations are that you're moving at three times the speed of light."

"Four times," Kotch said. He smiled. "It's good to know that we've made an impact."

"Right," Reyes said, leaning forward. "So, Admiral, here's what's going to happen. We're going to invade Mars. We're going to take Mars. In that process, there's a strong chance that Olympus Mons will be destroyed."

"That won't happen."

"But it will. So, in the vain hope of saving us all the time and effort, I'm going to ask you…why?"

"Why?" Kotch asked, looking genuinely puzzled. "Why what?"

"Why FTL?" he asked. "Why a war?"

"I don't follow."

Reyes laughed. The solar system was laughing at him, the galaxy was pulling the strings, the universe didn't give a damn, and the multiverse, or God, or whoever, could frankly screw themselves. "FTL," he repeated. "Faster than we've ever travelled, fast enough to make extra-solar colonization a reality, fast enough to give you a whole new world…and you use it to wage a war." He leant back in his chair. "Seems that Einstein was right about hydrogen and stupidity. Course I can't count on hydrogen – a lot of that is based on approximations, and dark matter and dark energy have never really been solved."

Kotch remained silent for a moment. Silence once again lingered between the two soldiers, broken only by the hum of the Retribution's engines. But finally, he smiled. Finally, he spoke.

"You're a well-read man."

"It's the Space Age. I want to keep up."

"In a ship as slow as yours?"

"Synthetic rubber was developed as a result of the First World War. Nuclear power came after the use of atomic weapons. The development of cybernetics was spurred by military research into their practical applications." He leant forward. "War's always been good for technology Salen. Problem is, you developed the technology by yourself. You developed an FTL ship that could get you away from Earth's so-called tyrannical grip."

"That proves your point, doesn't it?" Kotch said.

Reyes fell silent.

"Nicholas Reyes, I'm going to make myself clear," Kotch whispered. "Twenty-four hours from now, SATO will try to take Mars. Twenty-four hours after that, one of us will be dead. Whether Olympus Mons is destroyed or not is contingent on my own survival. And if this is my end, if this is the end of the Settlement Defence Front, I promise you this…the stars aren't yours. They'll never be yours. Earth can die, your fellows can die, the whole human race can die. Because I developed Olympus Mons to kill you, Reyes. Not to flee into the stars, not to open up some new frontier, but because I could use it to move faster than your ships." He paused. "That's all there is to it. Mars is your destination. Not the stars. Now if-"

Reyes shut it off. He leant back and closed his eyes. He had nothing left to say.

And Kotch, in those moments, had been entirely truthful. He had no doubt about that. He'd rather die than allow Earth access to FTL technology, even if it could make extra-solar colonization viable. He'd rather fight to the end than even entertain the idea of peace. Bringing up a tactical map of Mars, Phobos, Deimos, and the remaining SDF fleet, Reyes could only wonder how many lives it would take to grant Kotch's wish of a blaze of glory. Wonder if it might cost him his own life as well.

"Mars," he murmured. "My destination."

A/N

It didn't escape my knowledge that Olympus Mons is stated to have FTL technology, and as far as I'm aware, it's the only ship in Infinite Warfare that possesses such tech. So, while I'm left to ask how the SDF could have more advanced tech than SATO (hello, Star Trek: Nemesis), I'm also left to ask how it would feature into the plot. Either:

a) The solar system is shown to be how big space really is, where intra-system jumps occur, making the ability to travel faster than light, however minutely, is used to great effect.

b) The story goes beyond the solar system.

c) It's a setup to extra-solar installments, since Infinity Ward has hinted they want a sub-series akin to Modern Warfare, only with Infinite Warfare.

My money's on option b or c, but hey, time will tel.