Paths

Maria

Date: July 2815

"Hey? Watch your six Maria!"

Maria checked her rearview screen to see a Martian pirate vehicle, its silver-and-red skulls gleaming softly in the dawn's light, coming to bear on her Apocalypse. She raised an eyebrow as she spun toward it.

The pirates lately seemed better armed than usual. This one carried some of the newest Knight weapons, including compression pulse lasers, mark-600 EMP cannons, and even two of the brand new electron flux whips. It was the whips she was concerned about right now; she carried uranium armor, which was not extremely resistant to such attacks. And the new whips had some shield passthrough, which alarmed her more.

As she turned the vehicle, she wondered if there would ever be an end to war, or if one group or another of idiots would be blasting at some other group until the Big Crunch.

The EMPs slashed into her shields, shooting sparks from the grid of emitters embedded in her armor, and the compression pulse lasers threw a green halo over her shield perimeter as they struck a moment after the EMPs. She gauged the firing times and swerved to the left suddenly.

Arcs of electricity flew past, barely a meter from her right shoulder pod. Rather than seeing what would happen with the next shot, she centered her crosshairs and let fly a single linked shot, directly at the enemy's left shoulder pod.

All six weapons struck exactly, her four EMPs turning the shields into a dissipating fog of incoherent energy, her Swarm missiles blowing the shoulder pod off.

Lopsided now, and without shields, the pirate turned as if to run, then stopped and fired again, this time at her wing mate.

His vehicle, a Minotaur, was poorly shielded and already well beaten, and a single shot took his shields down and blew all four weapons clean off. During this time, though, Maria fired again, a stream of unlinked EMP shots. The vehicle rocked under the hits, then stopped dead. A second later, it blossomed into a massive fireball.

"Thanks, Maria."

Maria did not reply, but checked her sensors again, hoping to find something, but in the end turning away frustrated. They had been combing these hills for the pirates, and it was a vicious game of cat-and-mouse. Once, the pirates had managed to group in a small canyon, and Maria and her wing mate found themselves fighting five of them at once. Maria had taken out two before her ammo was exhausted, and had withdrawn to offer fire support as her wing mate circled the others, somehow managing to stay alive long enough to cut them up.

-----

They had rearmed and repaired at a local Police facility, then returned to the hills.

She had ten Swarms left, now, five in each tube. Her ammo pack was exhausted, so she had five shots, enough to destroy a vehicle or two. But there were a number of enemies left. She hoped she would find the two, then be able to return to base for reload without being surrounded by half a dozen Dreadlocks.

She resolved to get a better-armed vehicle next time she had the chance. Next time she would pull rank.

She wondered who her wing mate was. His vehicle bore the blue-and-white of an independent force, and a diamond-shaped icon on the side identified the vehicle as property of the Orion Faction. She had heard about these people, allegedly held for a time by Metagens before returning to Earth. She'd heard a story about a long-range communications beacon, shooting sunward from great distance, broadcasting the Faction's return from the depths of space.

Maria closed her eyes, and in an instant she was elsewhere.

cold blue orb hanging over the land, dark sun hoarding its light for those closer to it, while the universe lay in darkness

ice and rock but the rock was ice too, and under the ice was water but not water, no

freezing, death by cold, darkness taking her, no, don't think about that

Her heart was pounding at two hundred beats per minute as the thud of impacts striking her armor forced themselves into her awareness.

There was a fireball and the impacts stopped.

"Maria! What's the matter? Your biotelem is going nuts--"

"Cold," she said softly. "It was too cold, too far from the sun--"

"What are you--"

"Disregard," she said, snapping to full alertness. "Cover me as I check this canyon."

A long, silent pause, then: "If my wing mate has a problem that is affecting her combat readiness, then my wing mate will tell me exactly what that problem is or I will take my wing mate back to base at once." This was said in a dry tone.

"I shall check the canyon whether or not you cover me, so you may as well." And she trotted off to the north.

"Are all you Knights this hard to work with?"

"No. I'm unique."

"I see."

Maria almost smiled.

-----

They ran into another pirate force later that day, a trio of Emancipators. This was not a challenge, despite them carrying whips as well. The small vehicles were easy enough to destroy with the Swarms, from long range where the whips couldn't reach. The last one fell to a combined shot by both of them, six EMP bolts, two long-range Swarms shots by Maria, and two close-range whips from her wing mate. The Emancipator's shattered husk tumbled a hundred meters, disintegrating on the ground.

"Nice."

"You are quite skilled yourself," Maria acknowledged. She would hate to get in a fight with this guy; as well as he dodged and as quick as his reflexes were, it would probably take her full clip to finish him off... and that would be if she was lucky.

"We're about done for the day?"

"Most likely. There is a dust storm bearing in this direction, and the pirates know better than to be out in it. Return to base."

"Right. May I buy you a drink when we get back?"

"Coffee," Maria said.

"That's not very relaxing..."

"I do not enjoy relaxation," she said softly. Too many things invaded her mind then, things she would much rather forget, though she knew she would never be able to. Death, destruction, a blazing fire in the sky, then years and years of--

What?

She shook her head. In twenty years, her memory would hit a brick wall. She could never so much as catch a glimpse of what lay after that. A battle, a terrible threat to her friends, and she... did something.

"Maria?"

"Yes?"

"I don't think coffee is such a good idea..."

"My biotelemetry is my business," she said shortly. She glanced down at the graphs: her heart rate was coming down from a maximum of 210 bpm. She felt tense, hot. Her temperature was 313 Kelvins, definitely not acceptable. She closed her eyes and forced her heart rate back to something reasonable, tensed her arteries to reduce blood flow, took a few slow, deep breaths.

Martian air did not sit well with her, not with her organomech brain and her body already working at such odds to each other. She had to get back to Earth, or barring that, to somewhere with artificial atmosphere, like Luna

(Mercury)

She closed her eyes and tried to put the vision of a searing white-on-black-on-brown landscape out of her mind.

Her wingmate muttered something.

"What was that?" Maria said.

"I said, I wish you'd tell me what's wrong. Maybe I could help."

"Doubtful," she said softly. The response was a disgusted growl. "Perhaps over coffee," she amended.

"Right. Let's head back before the pirates get gutsy."

Maria plotted the course back to the police base they were attached to. She desperately hoped they would not run into anyone, at least until her head cleared...

-----

The invitation came a week later as one of the Orion Faction command staff was passing through Mars on an inspection tour.

Her wingmate disappeared into the briefing room for quite awhile with his commander. When he returned, he smiled, waved, and continued on his way to the main entrance of the facility. She was on her way to the mess, but before she got there, the commander came up behind her.

"Wolfe?"

"Yes, sir?" she said, stopping at the door to the mess, turning, and coming to attention. Inwardly she was amused, she had been an admiral before, and deferring to a commander was an interesting switch.

"It comes to my attention you have some exemplary piloting skills, and that you have a certain freedom within the Knights..."

This could only be leading in one direction. "True," she said carefully. "For the next three years I am able to choose my own assignments, barring any emergency changes in my status."

"Well then. What do you think of the Orion Faction?"

"My experience with the Faction is limited to those pilots currently stationed in this region. Those I have found to be well-trained, professional, skilled in combat and diplomacy, and of good character." Which is more than could be said for the police around here, she thought bitterly.

The commander nodded sagely. "This said, would you be interested in a place in the Orion Faction?"

Maria nodded automatically, but caught herself. "I would, but..."

"But?"

"But joining the Faction would mess up certain plans I've made..." She sighed. The plans were not even her own, or rather they were but weren't, in some twisted cross-temporal way she wasn't interested in dwelling on. But she could never explain this to this commander, or anyone else. She already knew what he was about to say.

"The Faction only recruits pilots for a year's time, and only those willing to continue past that remain. Surely this would not damage your plans too easily."

If only you know, she thought. "I understand that, but unfortunately it is not possible. I am honored by your offer, and if the situation changes I will most definitely be in contact." She winced inwardly; it wasn't a lie but it certainly felt like one. She would never be joining the Orion Faction. If they were all like the pilots assigned to Mars, it would be a force well worthy of joining, but she had another path to follow.

"Well, the offer will still be open if you ever change your mind."

"I will bear that in mind."

"You do that. Watch your six, eh?"

"I shall. And you." With that, the commander nodded and turned away.

-----

Date: April 2830

"Maria? Maria!" Delithita called over the short-range communications, the static-filled hissing channel that barely carried her words. Maria blinked and glanced out the cockpit window at Del's Shepard, standing at the opening to the slot canyon.

"Mmm. Yes?"

"Your concentration is shot. What's up?"

"I am combat-ready," she assured the other woman.

"Yeah bull."

"I was thinking."

"Ah." Del's voice was distorted by a sudden burst of static, or more likely, a disgusted snort. "What's running around in that skull of yours?"

"Memories."

"Don't suppose you'd be interested in sharing."

Maria was silent. She knew Del would respect that silence and not press the issue, unlike many.

She considered the last few years on Mercury, the planet where she belonged, and considered what path she would have followed had she joined the Orion Faction.

Perhaps she would be even now fighting the Cybrids out on the outer moons, on Mars. Perhaps she'd have a desk job somewhere at one of the Faction's hidden bases. Perhaps she'd have run through a few years in the Faction and then returned to the Knights, to choose some other path.

But she wouldn't be here, standing beside a battered little Shepard waiting for the Cybrids. She wouldn't be about to return to the hideout, wouldn't later discover (something?), wouldn't save several thousand lives and build (what?)

dark corridors, rough-hewn rock, a sanctum

She blinked. She had to control her thoughts or she's start seeing

ghosts

Ghosts?

She spoke quietly. "Roads not taken," she said.

"Yeah," Del said bitterly. "Bet you wish you had ended up anywhere but here."

Maria thought about it. The Cybrids had taken her family, destroyed most of her planet, and even now infested the world like a plague of deadly metal locusts. She never knew for certain if she would survive to see the next day, never knew if a trip out to destroy something would be her last.

Perhaps things would be better if she had taken that road, so long ago. Perhaps...

She shook her head, gazed out the window at the filtered Mercurian sun, at the stark but beautiful landscape. "Actually," she said quietly. "I am exactly where I belong."

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