The group chuckled politely, and Lt. Quinn continued when we settled down. “In this case, several things prevent that from being an optimal strategy.” Here, he displayed a map behind him, which again was an entire wall converted into a screen. In the center of that screen appeared to be a large asteroid.

  “As some of you may have already recognized,” he continued. “This asteroid is Vesta.”

  This caused quite a stir. All asteroids, especially the big round ones, tended to look quite a bit alike. But Vesta was a very significant asteroid among the thousands that swung around the Solar System. It wasn’t just a rock, it was a giant rock.

  The largest of all asteroids in the Solar System was known as Ceres. The second largest was Vesta. In fact, Vesta alone accounted for close to ten percent of the total mass of all the asteroids put together. Only Ceres was bigger, being really a dwarf planet.

  Vesta was about 350 miles in diameter, bigger than many of the nations on Earth, while Ceres was approximately 600 miles in diameter.

  Lt. Quinn continued to rattle off a lot of facts and figures about Vesta. In the end, what really mattered was that it was a big rock, not just something you could trot across in a few hours. It might take a running man a week to circumnavigate the entire thing.

  “There’s an enemy base on Vesta,” he continued. “This is the home port of the criminals who attacked Borag just a couple of months ago, and who have been attacking other mining rigs in the area. Earth-Gov has therefore decided these criminals are a significant and outstanding threat to all commerce in the region. They’ve grown too big for their britches.”

  Everyone in the audience was nodding. We all hated pirates, and the idea there was a massive nest of them right out in the open—that was almost intolerable.

  “In order to encourage ships like Borag to end this threat,” Quinn continued, “Earth has seen fit to put a very large bounty on the capture or destruction of every pirate, every ship—and most importantly, their home base itself.”

  Here he used the laser pointer to tap and waggle on the surface of Vesta. There, in the middle of it all, right where the pointer was aiming, I saw a dark stain on the surface.

  As if knowing when my eyes would be drawn, Quinn caused the image to expand. It zoomed in, increasing in resolution until just that one dark splotch filled the entire screen.

  “Here we have the enemy base,” he said. “Inside this crater, which is ringed with gun turrets and missile batteries, we have a significant pirate’s den.”

  The level of noise in the briefing room was beginning to rise. After seeing the pirate defenses, all of us were questioning the sanity of this “mission” that we’d been given. This was a job for a squadron of cruisers, not for one lone mining rig with a single company of Marines.

  “Don’t panic, don’t panic,” Quinn said, lifting his arms high. “No, it’s not our job to go out there and kill every pirate in that nest—although I wish we could. Instead, bounties have been placed not just on ships or pirates, not just on the base itself, but on subsystems supporting the base, such as this solar energy producing grid over here.”

  He moved the view so we could see the glinting blue and silver gridwork of the solar panels he was discussing. “Also, there’s a water processing plant leeching ice from what is probably an ancient comet strike. That’s over here,” again he swiveled our point of view sickeningly, sweeping across the rocky surface of Vesta to spot another location.

  He went on like that, spotting many supporting locations that were outside the crater itself, but which supplied food, oxygen, water, energy—everything that the pirate base needed to survive.

  “Should we be able to destroy just one of these, all of Borag’s debts shall be wiped out—and that goes for you crewmen as well.”

  “Whoa!”

  We were stunned by this. All of a sudden, we lost our poor attitudes. Shock and dismay transformed into hopeful smiles. Everyone had debts, and no one liked them.

  “And that concludes the briefing,” Quinn said. “Now, who here is interested in dishing out a little revenge upon these snotty rock-rats, these pirates who dared attack and ruin our financial future just two months ago?”

  A cheer went up in the room as we shook our fists in the air and shouted, “Hoorah!”

  Lt. Quinn, whatever else you might say about him, was probably the best officer I’d seen aboard Borag when it came to the fine art of ginning up troops into a fevered pitch. Red Company seemed more prepared for battle than they’d ever been.

  Chapter 17: Vesta

  As Borag jetted across the Solar System toward Vesta, I spent my time training, gaming, goofing off, and trying to figure out a way to have a private moment with Freya.

  In this last regard, I was fantastically unsuccessful until one fortunate day when I heard some ship alarms going off and saw her twenty paces down the passageway, headed in my direction.

  “Freya?” I called to her. “Hey, what’s going on?”

  She turned around, bewildered, almost as if she didn’t recognize me for a moment. But then her expression softened, and she smiled.

  “Oh, hey, Devin,” she said. “I’m sorry, I can’t talk right now. The captain has called all-hands on the upper decks. I work on the bridge, remember?”

  “Yeah, how can I forget? Listen, I haven’t seen you for a month…”

  “I know, I know. But as soon as this crisis is over, we can...”

  “What’s the crisis?” I asked.

  She stood hesitantly, looking up and down the passageway to see if anyone might be listening. Then she leaned in close, and I could feel her warm breath on my ear as she whispered. “We spotted another ship, Devin.”

  “You mean a pirate ship?” I shrugged. “I guess it’s only to be expected. We’re in their territory, after all.”

  “No, no,” she said. “That wouldn’t be surprising at all. The unexpected thing is the other ship’s sensor signature. It’s another mining rig that’s shaped just like Borag—and that’s not even the bad part.”

  “Tell me,” I said.

  “It’s heading for Vesta, just like we are!”

  For a few seconds, we looked at each other. Then what she was telling me began to sink in.

  “Are you serious?” I asked, instantly growing angry. “That sounds exactly like Interplanetary Excavations. Let me guess, they put out a general call, they set bounties on the pirates, and now every mining rig in the system is jetting over to Vesta to try to get a piece of the action. Is that what you’re telling me?”

  She nodded. “We think that’s what’s going on, yes.”

  I shook my head. “Great… What’s the captain doing about it?”

  “Well, right now she’s calling me up to the bridge. But in general, we’re going to try to beat the competition. We’re going to put on the gas. We have to get to Vesta first.” With that, she ran off.

  Sure enough, acceleration warnings rang out around the ship ten minutes later. The big vessel began to rumble and shake. Normally, once you got up to cruising speed, ships like Borag tended not to burn their engines much. This was especially true when approaching an enemy target. The more thrust you applied, the more visible you were, and in space, it was quite easy to spot a spaceship, which looked pretty much like a comet. Borag was easy to spot, firing out plume of plasma and exhaust, not to mention creating a large heat signature. While cruising, our ship was pretty much invisible. But when we burned our engines, we were a beacon in space.

  Captain Hansen was risking a lot to make it to Vesta first. This seemed alarming and somewhat worrying to me. After all, it was one thing to sneak up on a pirate den on an asteroid and attempt to do some damage. It was quite another to announce your presence. By applying thrust we were giving the pirates a warning—and we were doing it just to beat out another ship that was racing against us for the same prize.

  I gave myself a shake, settled into my acceleration couch, and hoped against hope that all would turn out for the best.

  Two more days passed. During this time, we were under acceleration for the majority of our waking hours. In fact, there was only a brief break as we felt Borag turn around and begin when I had a chance to talk to Freya again. When I got the chance, I asked her what the hell was happening now.

  She grimaced and told me they’d detected even more ships.

  “What?” I said, aghast.

  “That’s right. Several more mining rigs from all over the Solar System are descending on Vesta. It’s like some kind of feeding frenzy.”

  “Are we going to get there first?”

  Freya shook her head. “I don’t know, but the captain is no longer worried about stealthing in. She figures that with all these ships coming at them, the pirates must know what’s in store.”

  “That’s great,” I said. “That’s just great. We’re going to be marching into a ready enemy armed to the teeth. I’d hoped we were able to sneak up on them.”

  “Everyone did,” she said. “I don’t think that’s how it’s going to happen, now.”

  Later I passed on this information to Sergeant Cox. He eyed me and nodded. “I’ve heard things about this. I talked to Lt. Quinn and Commander Kaine. They say the same thing: this is turning into a Charlie-Foxtrot.” He slammed a hand down on my shoulder. “One good thing though, at least we aren’t the only target out here. The pirates have gotta be running scared.”

  He walked away, laughing hard. I hoped he was right.

  A few days later, our engines cut out, as we had slowed down enough. We slid into orbit behind Vesta. The captain’s goal had been to avoid their base with its ring of defensive guns and missiles batteries. If the pirates couldn’t get a bead on us, they couldn’t strike us and knock out our ship.

  As Borag approached Vesta, the massive rock came into view, filling every viewscreen aboard the ship. The surface was rough and covered in craters, with large mountains and valleys visible. Streaks of different minerals could be seen on the surface, glinting in the light of the sun. The asteroid’s rusty exterior was dotted with light from small deposits of metal. Despite its rugged appearance, there was an undeniable beauty to Vesta as it spun slowly in the emptiness of space.

  Borag didn’t land, not exactly, but we did get close to the surface of Vesta and skim along for quite a distance.

  Corporal Tench fumed about every move the captain made—but he never had the balls to complain to her directly. Instead, he bitched at us about it.

  “You, Starn,” he said. “You’re always up on the upper decks trying to snake your way into every skirt who goes near that bridge.”

  Hearing this, I frowned at him. He gave me a nasty smile in return.

  “Come on, come on,” he said. “I know you have a source. What do you think Hansen is doing? Is she as shit-off crazy as it looks?”

  I shrugged. “Seems like the captain brought us in close to Vesta, right down to where we’re blowing dust around on the surface. Now, she’s gliding along, right on the deck, trying to get us closer before she sends Red Company out to go hopping across the asteroid toward our final target, the power plant.”

  Corporal Tench sneered. “I know all that, you idiot. Anyone with eyes can look out a porthole and see that. But what about loot, huh? Are we going to get a chance to recover any of our lost investment?”

  I blinked at him and shook my head. “You mean, all our cargo? I don’t know…”

  “Useless,” he said. “Frigging useless. Hansen won’t tell us—did you know that? Not until we’ve completed our mission, she says. I just want to know if I can get something out of this—something of real value. These bastards owe us, after all. I don’t want to run a hundred miles in low gravity for nothing.”

  When Tench found he couldn’t get any more answers out of me, he called me useless again and wandered off. I was annoyed that everyone seemed to know I’d been talking to Freya whenever I could. I didn’t want to get her into trouble somehow.

  At last, the big ship slowed down and came to a halt, settling on the dusty surface of Vesta. As one might expect, Red Company was already armed, armored, and waiting for our deployment order. We had full oxygen tanks, full batteries, and fully charged laser carbines in our grips.

  At last, the big bay doors opened, and we were allowed to rush down the ramps and out onto the bright surface of Vesta. It was kind of a relief.

  “Go, go, go!” Lt. Quinn shouted. “Spread out, spread out! We’re not expecting sniper fire, but you never know!”

  We raced out of Borag’s lowest passages and bounced away in random directions. We looked like fleas all racing away from a dog in a bathtub.

  A few minutes later, we were all deployed and had found cover. There was plenty of shattered rocks, craggy outcroppings, and various scars in the landscape. These included craters and gashes from meteor strikes and close encounters with other asteroids. Vesta was an old world, millions of years old. She’d been pretty badly battered over the eons, and it showed.

  Once we were all on foot and at a safe distance, Borag lifted off again and soared back the way she had come, leaving us behind.

  “We’re totally screwed,” Ledbetter said.

  “Belay that shit, Private!” Sergeant Cox shouted. “Borag’s not abandoning us, they’re helping us out. If they sat here with their hot jets idling, there’s certain to be drone spy or another pirate ship out here looking for us. You want them to spot us right off? Believe me, it’s best that Borag doesn’t pinpoint the exact spot where we were inserted into this combat zone. You never want that, boys. Don’t forget it.”

  I supposed Cox was right, even if it did sound like happy horseshit. We’d been dumped on a sunbaked, airless rock, sure—but it had been done with the best of intentions. That’s what really mattered, wasn’t it?

  My squad moved out, and I got to my feet and bounced away. We moved in a loose formation across the landscape. According to my helmet’s geo-mapping, we were making a beeline directly toward the crater where the pirate base was located.

  We weren’t even going to attempt to break into that crater. Instead, we were here on an advanced mission to soften up this enemy fortress. We were going to knock out their power—or die trying.

  Our communications were set to stealth mode, meaning only weakest and shortest-range of radio signals were in use. Our helmets only worked in line of sight and only within a very limited radius. In addition, the signals were scrambled, so that anyone else listening in on our channel would hear nothing but background static. The kind of signal things that sounded like cosmic rays from a distance, or maybe the weird noises that a quasar made if you aimed the radar dish in that direction. We were, in fact, as quiet and secretive as we could be, moving in squads separated by a good distance, just in case one of us was taken out.

  Several long, difficult hours passed as we crossed a few canyons, a few mountain ridges, and more than our share of blast craters. All these locations marked where, perhaps millions of years ago, Vesta had been struck by another rock like her and had survived.

  After approximately three hours of marching, we reached the terminator line for Vesta, which was moving at a visible pace. At this point, the sunlight from Earth’s primary star, Old Sol, ceased hitting Vesta, and we continued trotting into sudden darkness.

  It was pitch black except for the distant, frozen points of stars above us. We avoided using our suit lights as much as possible, only giving off the slightest glow to see what our boots would be stepping on next. We didn’t want to accidentally walk into a ravine or a jagged rock formation.

  As stealthily and quickly as possible, we crept up on the pirate base under the cover of night. We were almost there, about three miles from the solar-powered station, when the quiet night was suddenly illuminated with blazing streaks of energy.

  Screams soon followed. We had been ambushed.

  Chapter 18: Battle in Darkness

  Red Company had walked right into an ambush. Fire was coming from seemingly every direction.

  “Take cover!” I heard Sergeant Cox call over our radios. “Turn on your night vision gear and return fire!”

  We had been equipped with light-gathering optics, but as they cost quite a bit of suit power over time, we hadn’t been running them until now.

  The rocky, airless, moon-like surface of Vesta appeared before me. I could see the flashing heat rays being fired in our direction, explosions flared white off to my right—so I dodged left.

  I dashed into a scar on the surface of the asteroid, then tumbled and crawled my way behind a boulder. A stuttering spray of beams seemed to follow me, but it didn’t quite catch my fleeing ankles and knees as I pulled them back behind the rock and under cover.

  Other soldiers were not so lucky. I could tell by their howls of pain and anguish.

  “My suit’s ripped. I’m losing air!” Padgett shouted.

  Sergeant Cox responded, but soon Padgett’s line was squelched. I could tell that the sergeant had tuned him out for all of us. None of us could hear him dying and pleading for help.

  It seemed like a grim fate to suffer after all this marching across barren rock—to have your comrades tune you out when you had fallen to the ground, but I knew Cox had done it for a reason. If we were all hearing one man howl and complain about his injuries, we certainly couldn’t think or coordinate our plan of attack.

  “Okay everybody, on my mark. Up and return fire—now!” Cox ordered.

  We did as we were ordered, and I saw that across the way, perhaps two hundred yards to our left 2nd Squad led by Lt. Quinn had done the same. It seemed like Quinn himself was directly commanding that squadron, and they were already hosing down our ambushers from an oblique angle.

  Caught in a crossfire our attackers, who seemed to number fewer than we, melted back from the rocks. They stopped firing, then disappeared—and we dared to advance.

  When we reached their position, we found it was empty. They’d left one man behind, already frozen in death on the unforgiving rocks, but the rest of them had retreated.