By David C. Daoust
The small red spaceship cut through the skies of Twin Crown like a condor souring through the desert air. Its wide wingspan caught the winds as it circled ever lower to the ground. The small vehicle touched down and the wide wings fell over the dunes like a blanket. A small door opened at the vehicles crest. The ramp extended and three Red Soldiers marched from the hold.
Three soldiers with an extra invisible overseer; Natalya Rose.
The Shadow of the Red Faction still did not have a body within the system. What ‘forms’ were stored on the nearby industrial hub- Farhul, did not suit her, nor her intentions. Thus, she haunted her men, watching them from afar; Collecting data from their huds as she patiently waited for them to begin their mission.
Finally, they had returned to the small sand moon. Natalya was displeased with her plans crumbling to ruin. She had thought that her actions to undermine the moons secession from the Confederation had been a lock. She had thought wrong.
The Arktech had been stolen– and her agents, yet embedded within the small Grady settlement, had fallen silent. From what information she could collect, the Arktech was dragged out into the desert by forces unknown to her. She needed feet on the ground. Hands to infiltrate. Mouths to report. Mouths she could trust.
Only one of the three, was actually one of her cadets. One of her spies from her Shadow Network. She whispered in his ear as he took command of the other operatives. All three were human. Natalya was not pleased that she did not have bots ready to be deployed. This was all thanks to the crisis that separated and split the human cadets from the bot cadets… if it was up to Natalya, the humans would do nothing but lounge about enjoying the fruits of their labors. What was the point, really? To care for the humans, if they had to do the work themselves? In her mind they should be preening little pets, like happy little birdies singing in their gilded cages… and if the eugenics project ever got off the ground, she was confident that is what they would become.
The Soldiers were trained with that was called a ‘Spine’, which was a small lightweight device that hovered at their back- it actually resembled a spine. It was a series of devices that could project a solid-light forcefield in a ring around them. Each one formed into a kind of segment, and when they all worked together, it appeared as some sort of massive segmented worm. This was a device built to ensure that the human soldiers could keep up with the serpentine Assault-bots being built in the Crucibles.
As each soldier took to the sands, they powered up their Spine, transforming each into a massive twelve-foot worm. The solid light segments, each projected from its own device, was in no way a major breakthrough in the field of solid-light engineering. In fact, the device simply accepted the limitations as they were, and relied more on separate devices working together rather than the seamless sculptures -other engineers- liked to build.
The worms took on the color tone of the sands around them, becoming almost invisible, all but the forward segment that domed their heads and upper bodies, which remained transparent. The three worms charged north, in search of tracks. Plunging deep within the dunes at times and tearing through the terrain when it became craggy.
Natalya Rose took control of the wide winged ship, launched it back up into the air, streaked back out into space- leaving no trace of their infiltration of the now, rogue, moon.
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