HWANG

  I was uneasy as I helped haul Ricky away from the wreckage he had found himself in, the screams coming from the door had sent a chill down my spine.

  They weren't the screams of robots who had been taken over by a virus, they were all too human.

  And Carolina had wiped them out without blinking.

  I shook my head.

  Maybe the virus had hijacked an APC and drove it into the airlock as a last ditch effort to stop us.

  Except...

  None of the other aircars that had slammed into the ship showed any signs of being able to target weak points, the virus was just barely able to trick their systems into emergency mode and got them to drive into the ship at random, or at least Brayden, er, Captain Cofey had said so.

  So how had the APC managed to drive right up into the airlock?

  And it was a military vehicle, it had physical cutouts specifically to prevent an electronic attack from doing this, why didn't the crew cut it?

  None of it made any sense.

  Until Carolina played the message from my current commander and chief.

  “Unknown ship, you are claimed property of the planetary government of Hou Ji, return to land or face consequences.” I ground my teeth. Her voice disgusted me. She had been a rich girl with no political experience, but she was a celebrity on the planet, and very popular with the cultural russians who had begun immigrating en masse to Hou Ji about twenty years ago. She was never supposed to actually do anything when in power, she was a publicity stunt.

  And it had come and bit all of them in the ass.

  The second message made my blood boil. “Captain, the government here does not wish you harm, they merely wish you to say and speak to them more, you can tell them of old earth.”

  A priestess of a cult that had been spreading like a cancer through our planet, arriving with the same set of immigrants that my wretched commander and chief had come from.

  We reached the section of hallway that was now a vertical shaft.

  “Fuck, how are we going to get him up?”

  I asked just as the world turned over.

  Unlike the last time I was able to keep my feet, walking from what I had been using as the floor to the actual floor as the ship evened out, though me and Rekki fell against the bulkhead that had been our floor near the end.

  Megan, sweet, dumb little Megan lost her feet almost immediately and rolled towards me, almost tripping me up.

  Carolina, who had been odd on planet but seemed almost alien in her mannerisms aboard ship, simply stuck a foot out and braced herself against the wall, shifting her hips with the changing gravity, like having the world flip upside down on you was a daily occurrence.

  For all I knew it might be for her.

  I looked at the tablet in Carolina's hands.

  “Can you send a transmission from that?” I asked as me and Megan worked on getting Ricky up.

  Carolina looked up at me, then up at the bulkhead above her, looking around before her eyes found what she was looking for.

  “Hook will you allow that?” She asked.

  “If in your judgement you believe a transmission will help the ship and the captain yes I can allow you access to the transmitter.” A voice that made me jump came on over the speakers above us. I assume there were speakers above us. I couldn't see any.

  I waved her over to me, and she did while tapping on the tablet.

  “What stuff did Brayden manage to hack through before shit went down and we had to lift off?” I asked.

  “Hook?” Again Carolina looked at the ceiling.

  “Power, Communications, Traffic systems, and it seems Captain Cofey felt that hacking as many robotic command control and recharge nodes as possible to send a shutdown code was a priority. Oh also air quality” The voice, this Hook, said.

  “Alright, give me a broad transmission in the clear. I need people to hear this.”

  Carolina paused and seemed to think for a moment, then shrugged. She tapped a few buttons on the front of the tablet and handed it over.

  I grabbed it and looked down at what looked like a recording interface.

  I took a deep breath before speaking. “This is Corporal Hwang Su of the Hou Ji Combined Military and Emergency forces, I suspect our current leader, the Vice-president Ivanova, is about to fill your heads with a bunch of lies about the current situation. I am here to tell you, and the bounty hunter she has currently tailing us, the truth. We came under attack by Berzerker's. They infected us from space. The captain of the...”

  I looked over at Caroliona for a prompt.

  “Hook.” She said.

  I froze as I realized she called the voice overhead the same name, and images of AI rebellions took over my head before I returned to doing my job, deal with that later.”

  “The hook and their captain, Brayden Cofey fought them off, and then came down to our planet to help us. Captain Brayden is the reason aircars are no longer bombarding you, HE is the reason your AC works and your vents aren't billowing smoke, HE is the reason you are not getting torn apart by robots as we speak. And our Glorious Leader has decided that in return for all that help, which he was savagely wounded while undergoing, that she was going to steal his ship. We are currently fleeing the planet, and Vice-President Ivanova has chosen to sick a bounty-hunter on us, I assume to force Captain Cofey back and use him as slave labor to finish clearing out our systems, like some kind of human anti-virus software that she intends to plug in to our systems and never let go. This is who you voted for, and I hope you'll rethink that and force a new vote in the coming months.

  And finally the bounty-hunter, I don't know how much money the president promised you, but I'm still waiting on my combat bonus from five years ago, so I wouldn't hold my breath.”

  I finally ended my tirade, feeling relieved...and more than a little scared.

  Megan, sweet stupid Megan, was staring at me, her eyes bugged out.

  “What did you do?” Megan asked.

  I replied. “Told it like it is to everyone listening.” I replied, growling.

  Carolina looked at me surprised, but with approval in her eyes.

  “I am pretty sure what you did is at least a court martial.” Megan said, breathless.

  “Only a court martial? Shit I thought I'd at least hit treason.” I replied.

  Ricky stirred from where he hung between us and looked up at me.

  “You're crazy you know that right?” He said.

  “I know.” I said back.

  “You know you can't go back home now? They'll nail you to the wall.” He continued.

  “Planet's fucked, this shit sent us back decades, and there is no way in hell I want to work for a president that would pull this shit. I've been looking for a way out since the last election. This way at least I get the last word in.” I returned.

  “You a crazy Bitch Hwang.” Rekki said, laughing, coughing up something nasty and black as he did so.

  “Let's get you to medical asshole.” I said, handing Carolina back her tablet.

  We continued moving after our little break, and my bout of crazyness and possibly treason, going up the slight incline now that lead to the second level of the ship instead of going through those piece of shit ladder's that I almost broke my neck coming through.

  We reached the medbay finally only to find it shut. I pounded on the door.

  “Hey, open up! We got casualties!” I shouted

  A moment passed, then the voice that had identified itself as Hook emerged from the tablet.

  “The doctor is in surgery, and told me to inform you to stabilize the patient until he is finished.” Hook stated.

  “He said all that?” I asked, knowing the taciturn doctor would have normally used far more or far fewer words, and far less polite. I leaned Rekki against the wall... Or was it Ricky? Why was I getting confused.

  “No, I summarized and excised the invective.” Hook replied.

  “Ah, that makes more sense. Shit whose in surgery?” I asked

  “Captain Cofey.” Hook replied.

  I breathed out a snort through my nose.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  “Fuck. What happened.”

  “I am unsure, a localized EMP disabled systems all around the bridge.” Hook stated.

  That was suspicious... we had EMP grenades in our kit, but why would the LT have set one off at the bridge of all places?

  “Where is the Lieutenant?”I asked

  “Dead, I believe, judging by the remains in the bridge.” The robot voice stated

  “What?” both I and Megan exclaimed.

  I caught Carolina fidgeting behind us.

  “Again, I am unsure of what happened, the drones guarding the bridge were disabled by the EMP along with all monitoring equipment. The first thing I am able to see after the initial blast is Carolina tending to Captain Cofey after his arm was severed.”

  “His ARM?” Megan exclaimed.

  “Yes. I offered a cybernetic replacement, The doctor is saving what he can of the arm now and prepping it for cybernetic installation.”

  “Damnit. Brayden really didn't want to get the surgery.” Carolina said, looking distraught.

  “Wait, what? I thought he was C.O.G.” I asked. From what I knew every member of C.O.G. Was so heavily augmented they were more machine than man.

  “Hook keeps pressuring him to get augmented, but with all his health issues I think he was worried that any augmentation might mess him up. He never said as much, but... I could see his face when he refused. He was scared.” Carolina said, sounding exhausted.

  “I did not realize that.” Hook, the ship's computer that I decided to refer to it as instead of continuing to spiral down the scary AI rebellion rabbit hole, replied.

  “Yeah no shit Hook you are all of like two days old! He's good at hiding it, and I only put it together later, but... yeah. Not that it matters now, a missing arm is going to fuck with him at least as bad as a cybernetic one.” Carolina said, the heat of her words making her face flush red.

  “Fuck I bet... I'd be scared of that shit too... What the hell happened to his arm?” I exclaimed. Shit had been coming at us so fast, first the comms went down, then the robots started killing people, then cars started raining out of the sky, all of a sudden we're shunted off on a half gutted transport to escort some COGboy on orders of the president, only it wasn't the president, but the vice president, but acting as the president cause the actual president got himself shot and I just REALLY needed things to slow down and start making sense.

  I was lost in my reverie and barely noticed Carolina tensing up, and moving away from us. This of course made me tense up, and I subconsciously tightened my grip on my rifle. The fuck was happening.

  “Your lieutenant blew it off.” Carolina stated, her voice level, her eyes flicking from mine to Megan's.

  “What? Why would he do that? Wait why are you acting like that?” Megan questioned Carolina.

  I knew why she was acting like that. I had seen that look before during the war. She was deciding if she was going to kill us or not. There was no wariness in her stance, she wasn't afraid of us. It was the gaze you got when you had someone dead to rights. That's why she had shuffled away from us before telling us. To get us both in the blast of whatever weapon she had.

  I released my gun, letting it hang from the strap hooked to my vest, and put my hands up.

  “Easy Carolina, whatever orders the Lieutenant got about that, they weren't ours. Or at least they aren't any I'm willing to follow.”

  Megan jerked to look at me as I raised my hands above my head, and I could see Carolina flinch, her gaze tightening.

  Megan turned to look Carolina in the eye, and was met with a gaze as cold as a corpses. It was patently obvious that Carolina had no problem putting us down. As silly as she could come off, and as immature sometimes, it was easy to dismiss her. But she was obviously a trained soldier, with the imperial navy judging by that ring, and she was more than willing to pull the trigger.

  “What's going on?” Megan asked.

  Rekki, for his part, raised his hands above his head, his eyes flicking between me and Carolina.

  “We're being held at gunpoint, because our dumbass lieutenant shot Captain Cofey.” I deadpanned back. I couldn't help it. Sass was my native language.

  I had never liked him. The Lieutenant I mean. Captain Cofey seemed alright, for a smart guy who kept trying to smart guy his way out of problems. Reminded me of my ex-husband.

  If he hadn't been trying to be a smart guy and had just taken the direct route to solve his problems maybe he wouldn't have gotten shot.

  Huh... that actually would've worked for both of them.

  “Put your gun down Megan, she has us over a barrel here, and I'd prefer not to get smoked cause you want to go down swingin.” I said as I saw Megan's hand tighten on her weapon.

  I really didn't want to get shot today on top of everything else. Been beaten by a robot, damn near run over on the transport over here, then almost flattened by dive-bombing cars, then nearly throttled by a robot; a little kinky but not like I could enjoy the moment.

  Megan slowly, reluctantly, released her rifle and raised her hands over her head.

  “So, what happens now?” I asked Carolina, whose face was deadly serious.

  “Weapons on the ground, then ammunition, everything you have strapped on you, down on the ground, then back up and help Rekki remove all of his stuff and make sure he isn't going to die on us before the surgery is over.” Carolina said.

  I raised my eyebrow.

  “That's it?” I interjected.

  “I'm willing to believe your Lieutenant was working alone, and I don't hate you or anything, but I need to keep you under control until Brayden is back online and can provide some security. Normally I'd ask Cat-bot or Dog-bot but they are still pretty fucked from the EMP.” I said.

  “Dog-bot? Cat-bot?” Megan said in confusion.

  “Two of our drones, one acts like a dog, one acts like a cat. I thought Brayden was making it up but one likes to be close to people and even likes 'pats' and the other is aloof and stays away from you until you ignore it. So it tracks. Or so I've heard. Only seen cats in vids.” Carolina rambled.

  My brain was a bit overloaded from the switch from hardened killer holding me at gun-point to girl talking about her pet drones, but I did as she initially asked and slowly lowered my gun to the ground, followed by Megan. Rekki watched us from the bulkhead where he had been leaned.

  “Now the rest.” Carolina commanded.

  Under her watchful eye I unbuckled my rig that held all of my ammunition and my body armor and set it on the ground.

  Megan followed suit, a step behind me.

  “Now Ricky.” Carolina said, and the word gave me a headache for some reason.

  “Who?”

  “Rekki, the guy behind you, don't you know your own comrade's names?” She said.

  Her tone pissed me off but she wasn't wrong, why did I forget Rekki's name?

  I turned around and helped Rekki off with as much gear as I could, but there was something wrong with his chest, he almost screamed when I tried to unbuckle his harness.

  “He's hurt I can't get it all off.” I said, feeling panic enter my voice. I really didn't want her to twitch and shoot us because of Ricky's screaming, or take that as an indicator that we were trying something.

  “Just get the ammo and weapons off and put it in the pile. We'll get him medical attention soon enough. Assuming the bounty hunter doesn't blow us away.” Carolina said.

  “Didn't the, uh, Baron guy threaten to blow him away if he so much as locked targeting radar on us?” Megan asked.

  Carolina answered, taking another step back to keep Megan, Ricky, and I all together in her line of sight. “He did, but The Baron Hannity took severe damage in our fight with the Berzerker's. His main gun is absolutely capable of taking out the bounty hunter, but I doubt he has the drives to keep up with it once we start heading for the transit point. If the bounty-hunter realizes that he may just take a shot at us.” Carolina deadpanned.

  “God I hate being aboard ship. You get to be scared of all kinds of shit you have no control over.” Ricky muttered.

  Carolina aimed an appraising gaze at Rekki.

  I turned to him as well. “When were you ever aboard a starship?” I asked.

  “I immigrated remember? I've been on lots of starships. Hell I grew up on a station.” Ricky said.

  I perked up at that. Ricky had obviously told someone about this but I didn't remember.

  “Where from?” I asked.

  “Oh, you know, around.” Rekki answered evasively.

  The three of us stared at him for an uncomfortable few minutes.