Chapter 24: Hohmann Transfer

"I see it, Ikuno."

"How can you see it?"

"I see what the Tracer sees. But it's dark. The attenuation it too high."

"Decrease atten-"

"No, I can handle the darkness. I can't handle that thing."

"Load the round. You got a lock on the frigate?"

"It's close."

"Close isn't good enough. Has it spotted us?"

"I don't know. Oh hell! Cross section is increasing. It's turned broadside!"

She grabbed the control sphere and felt acceleration pushing her down into the hard seat below her. A bubble formed at the top of the skull cavity and turbulence clouded the fluid around them. Then the fluid cleared as she eased out of the turn.

"I'm going around the other side."

"The other side of what?"

"The moon."

"Well you better be quick, looks like there's something coming behind us."

"U.N.F. strategic command- you got any contacts?"

She waited a few seconds. There was only static.

"Something's wrong."

"Ishigami must have cracked the codes. He's shut down the long range transmitter."

"Is it gaining on us?"

"Yeah, whatever it is, it's still burning thrusters."

Soon we will have the means to integrate them all. The catalyst and the vector.

"I can hear it, Ikuno!"

"What's it saying?"

"Something about how it wants to integrate everyone."

"Ria, you see it?"

"Integrate this!"

She fired a round.

"It's looking good. Two minutes to impact. That other thing is gaining on us fast!"

"Screw it. Load another round and snipe that thing."

"Ready."

"Fire!"

"Time to impact twenty seconds. Combined velocity is forty five K.M.S."

"Hit! VIRM frigate at L-2 destroyed. Contact two still incoming. It looks like a hit too, but it's still-"

The world turned dark and strange rocking motion gripped her.

"Ikuno! What happened?"

"I don't know!"

"I can't see a thing!"

"It's black- all black."

It's over, weakling humans. Enjoy what time you have left.

"What the hell was that?"

I am VIRM. The distributed nervous system of the craft you are piloting.

"What happened?"

You have collided with one of my brethren.

"We're floating in some kind of orbit!" Ria shouted at the black void.

Ikuno mused. "Everything's still headed toward the moon, just the same as it was before impact."

There was silence for a time.

"Tell me, VIRM- is there some kind of portal on the other side of the moon?"

More silence.

"How much time do we have? Are you still alive?" Ikuno raged.

Silence still.

"Damn. Either it's dead or it's not talking."

"Comms are down. Strategic transmitter down too. And nobody knows where we are. Is this the end?"

Yes. Foolish humans.

"So we're just going to crash into the moon and that's it?" Ria started to panic, she thought hard, trying to remember the numbers on her screen before it all went black. "fifty thousand km at five K.M.S.- that's- a little under three hours.

"Three hours- assuming the oxygen lasts-"

She felt a hand on her shoulder.

"We'll be okay. I know it. I'll be here with you,"

"Ikuno- I-" she grasped her hand tightly. "Thank you."

"Ikuno." She rasped.

"Ighigo-" she said softly. "Do you mind if I call you Ichigo?"

"I suppose it's okay. But- I don't feel like some mythical squad leader. I've never led anyone. Even my boyfriend-" she stopped talking abruptly.

"You're not. You're you. You've lived a different life. But for me, it's all one continuous story. I just wish I could talk to her again. This feels- almost the same. Like talking to a ghost."

"What's the point of even talking when we're minutes away from death. A sealed ampoule soon to be broken? What's the point of debating philosophy when we're about to die?"

"If that were true-why would anyone question anything?"

"Ikuno- How much time until impact?"

"I don't know. Can't be long now. Ten minutes? Thirty?"

It was all black. Jet black. All they could hear were eachother's voices. No light or heat or information could enter or left the giant's skull. As all skulls were intended.

"Ichigo, I've always wanted to tell you-"

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

"What in the hell was that?"

"Sounded like an- asteroid?"

*BANG* *BANG-ity* *BANG*

"That's no asteroid."

"It's coming from the entry port!"

Ria scrambled in the pitch darkness for slippery ladder through sheer willpower alone. After two dozen rungs- carefully placing one foot below the other, serenaded by the constant banging on a metal door, she finally reached the port, then knocked back with her fist.

"Who's there?"

"Sounds like there's someone alive in there!"

Another faint voice. "Fire zenith immediately half power- don't break the soft dock!"

"Get the magnetic latches!"

"Ikuno! Vent the SCL!"

After a moment of tremendous noise and freezing cold, she turned the locking wheel and had to shield her eyes from blinding light on the other side.

A bald man stood before her. A long jagged scar ran along his face, all the way from his forehead to his chin. Behind him was a blindingly white corridor.

Red letters painted the wall, "SHUTTLE AIRLOCK -"

Then she saw the nametag on his space suit:

VERBIUS, LANCE
COLONEL, U.N.F. SpF

How'd he find us?

"You're Royce's father?" Ria asked.

The man chuckled a bit, "ha! That's the first time someone's recognized me because of him. Usually it's the other way around."

"How'd you find us out here?"

"Between the giant railgun you stole out of Earth's orbit and the Tracer prototype you stole from Ash Cloud – we couldn't just watch as two high value space assets just picked up and flew off to the moon, could we?"

She blinked slowly and nodded.

"Glad you could make it," Ikuno said, floating weightless in midair. "What's the situation on Ash Cloud? What did we miss?"

"Well you managed to take out Ishigami's number two guy- Lieutenant Balman, who was flying a Tracer prototype they called Bristlecone. Stylet looks intact. And that big ass frigate is still orbiting L-2, albeit in several large pieces- thanks to your good aim." He walked them to the bridge of the shuttle.

"Jones- grab onto Stylet with the arm, and jettison that Tracer torso we just pried open."

A scrawny guy at the front of the bridge nodded and started moving levers in front of a giant holographic display.

"How many Tracers are still under U.N.F. control?" Ikuno asked.

"Well, as of right now- that's a big fat zero. Ishigami's got at least three active, and potentially a dozen more."

"Has he gone for Quaking Aspen yet?"

"As far as we know- not yet, but we expect that's his next move."

"Damn-" she cursed. "Ria-"

Somehow it feels strange to be called my own name. It just feels- different now.

"Yes?"

"Looks like you got your wish. We're done piloting Tracers. Now we've got to destroy them," Ikuno said.

Verbius continued, "Ishigami's trying his damnest to crack the encryption on the long range transmitters so he can warp in the invasion fleet. It's a good thing I didn't trust the Tracer project, otherwise we'd be out of luck."

"What do you mean," Ria asked.

The shuttle slowly rotated in space. She saw the half-torn and mutilated Tracer floating away down the endless black abyss. Long black cords and spheres of crystallized liquid floated away with it. A white fog of sublimating water and snow followed in its wake.

Ikuno explained, "at the core of Ash Cloud is a power source. A fail-safe. If VIRM gets a hold of it, they could use Ash Cloud's high power transmitter to integrate every opto-capable human into their collective. Linking their minds directly with eachother through a sort of optical relay. A brain-to-brain internet. A global consciousness with Ash Cloud, and Ishigami, at the focal point."

The Colonel nodded, "Ishigami is a brilliant tactician and the VIRM appear to be directing overall strategy. He's using a two pronged approach. He's trying to disseminate a virus to control people through the existing Torikago system. And he's also trying to crack Ash Cloud's high power transmitter at the same time. If even one of his plans succeeds it will put everyone in great peril."

"But how are we going to get in that thing? It's a fortress? Unless you want to blast the dome apart..." Ria crossed her arms.

"We need someone on the inside. I'm afraid we all know who that is."

"Who?" Ria asked, genuinely confused.

"There's only two people who's ever accessed the core of an engineered Klaxosaur superstation. And they've both been dead for close to a thousand years," Ikuno explained.

"Wait- are you saying Ash Cloud is- a Klaxosaur?"

"Yes. At least originally. Nobody knows for sure what it is now. We think there are elements of Klaxosaur, human and VIRM technology. All we know is- it's managed to maintain a stable low earth orbit for close to a thousand years without decay. No human station can do that."

"So the only ones who can access the core are-"

Ikuno closed her eyes, "yes. I'll make the call."

The craft continued to spin and soon they could see a massive blue sphere which took up the entirety of their view. On the edge of the solar terminator she saw a tiny island where she supposed the city-state of Serilona rested.

I wish there was another way. Oh Royce- I suppose. That there'll be words I lose forever. Insignificant lies swallowed up by some terrible truth. Like snow falling in a black ocean.