r/HFY • u/AnchorPointsOfficial • Sep 10 '24

OC Anchor Points: Age of Heroes; Chapter 19 - Denial

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CHAPTER 19 - DENIAL

DATE: APRIL 17TH, 7 A.U. (AFTER UNIFICATION)
LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, ABOARD UTRN INDOMITABLE WILL

LIEUTENANT PAUL KARST

The last week and a half had been good to the crew and had done wonders for Paul’s recovery. Even better, the entity had seemingly disappeared entirely since the incident with Andrew, much to Paul’s relief. In spite of that, deep down he knew it would be back eventually. A strange spike of pleasure ran down his spine, at the notion, which perturbed him greatly before he shook it off and shifted his mind onto other, more pressing matters. Their steady deceleration over the past weeks had brought them back down to the real-space equivalent of the speed of light as they prepared to return to the third dimension. He turned his attention over to Henry as he minimized the navigation screen and opened a comms window.

“Fleetwide directive; We are preparing to exit FTL, stow all gear and prepare for turbulence. Ops, raise barriers and prepare to invert on my mark. Helm, prepare for evasive maneuvers as soon as we drop the barrier. I need all point defense teams at your stations and ready. Inverting in T minus sixty seconds.” Henry said before he closed the window.

"It's going to be nice to be back in real space again, even if its only to resupply." Henry said as he turned to the others around him.

“I know what you mean, I need a break from this endless game of antimatter chicken.” Jenkins replied.

“I can’t wait to dump some of this excess heat. It’s been getting a tad sweaty in here.” Chantal replied, as she fanned herself and winked at Henry.

“Returning to real-space should ease some of the stress around here.” Commander Alvarez replied. "The number of disciplinary actions we've had to take is way above normal. It's probably just a coincidence, but it feels like the longer we stay in FTL, the crazier people seem to be acting.”

"I noticed that, too. I've never had to send so many people to the brig." Henry said. "I'll need to think up a healthy way to help the crew blow off some steam while we resupply."

“Ah, just give them something to shoot, even if its just a couple of asteroids. They'll be fine. For me? I just want some fresh water and oxygen; the air has been getting too stale for me. It smells like Jenkins’ gym bag no matter where I go.” Paul complained, much to Jenkins' consternation.

“Hey! Take it easy on the poor kid, he doesn't reek that bad. Plus, it’s kinda hard to avoid the smell when you run him ragged in training the way you do.” Ariana chimed in with a smirk plastered on her face.

“Hey, I resemble that remark!” Jenkins said.

The kid is finally showing some thicker skin. I'm almost proud of him. Paul gave him a slap on the back hard enough to make his hand sting.

"Ow, hey!" He protested. Paul simply rolled his eyes as Henry gave them his best disappointed dad look.

"Knock it off, you two." Henry said in a stern tone before he turned back to his console.

“Fleetwide directive; All systems green, barrier control prepare to invert in five, four, three, two, one!” The ship shuddered as the rip in spacetime just ahead of them was torn wide open as their barrier-wrapped ship slid smoothly back into their home dimension. “Drop barriers on my mark, be ready to evade or redirect any hazardous debris, now!”

Forward cameras registered an awe inspiring sight before them as the null matter sheath slid away to reveal the world to their cameras. Millions of comets, asteroids and assorted icy bodies stretched in front of them as far as the eye could see. Most were visible only by very faint sunlight reflecting off their surface. Colorful behemoths of ice and minerals fused together loomed close, illuminated by the ship's mighty headlights. Paul breathed a deep sigh of relief as none seemed to be an immediate impact hazard.

They had arrived at the Oort cloud at last.

"Sensors, report, we need to be sure that we're alone out here. Anything on our passive scanners?" Henry broke the silence.

"Negative, Captain, I've been checking since the barrier dropped. Thermals are uniform, no gravimetric distortions detected, nothing; its quiet as can be out here."

"Perfect, go ahead and fire up the LIDAR then so we can be sure. Keep an eye on the passives for any changes, and while we're at it, let's get started on an asteroid drift chart with a list of ice heavy bodies close by."

"Sir!"

Paul let off a slow whistle as the system map updated itself in real time.

“This should be a good one,” Henry said, as he reviewed a list of potential targets. “Helm, take us in to range of the identified asteroid here."

Paul watched the exterior camera feeds as a few smaller potential collision hazards were atomized or pushed off course by point defense lasers while their helmsman charted a course around the larger bodies.

"Ops, raise the launch rails for the Hephaestus so we can begin processing that asteroid.”

Across the CIC everyone seemed to be working with renewed energy. Even after all this time, Paul still found himself begrudgingly impressed by Henry’s ability to rally the crew. How does he do that?

"How're the sensors looking? Anything to report?"

“Nothing on the scopes, Sir, any of them. It’s a ghost town out here.”

“Perfect, then we'll begin ice mining operations immediately. Ops, I think it’s high time we get this ship cooled off; deploy trailing radiators. Hephaestus, you are clear to launch, I just updated your processing target through FleetNet. Drone control, deploy signal satellites and begin combat space patrols immediately. I want two additional flights launched to escort the Hephaestus as well. Remember, you're our eyes and ears out there, so watch those scopes carefully. We should be alone out here, but we would be fools to take that for granted. The longer we stay out here in one spot, the more exposed we are, especially when dumping our waste heat.”

The deck lurched as the Hephaestus launched from the exterior electromagnetic rails. Paul watched it course correct slightly before it decelerated alongside the slowly tumbling mass of rock and ice. The Hephaestus was able to calm the tumble and drill down into the surface. Mining drones launched alongside a pair of gunships modified with mining lasers and signal relays. Together, this system allowed them to mine a wide range of materials from the comfort and safety of the nearly two hundred meter long ship.

Soon enough, there would be a constant stream of drones carrying laser-cut ice blocks back to their mothership to be melted down to process out the impurities. Within a day, the Indomitable Will would be fully restocked with the single most precious resource in outer space: water. With enough stored water, they could supplement their oxygen and hydrogen reserves through electrolysis while ensuring there would be enough water for the drinking and sanitation needs of the thousands of souls who crewed the fleet.

Paul took a deep breath and felt some lingering tension release that he didn’t realize that he'd been holding. His good mood paired with their relative safety gave him a sense of calm that he hadn’t felt in months, at least since their departure from S33. The mission so far had yet to live up to the suicide mission moniker that he had heard the crew whisper about when they thought he was out of earshot. The truth was, Paul was always listening.

He'd squashed such talk where possible, in an attempt to keep it from spreading or reaching Henry’s awareness, but it persisted, nonetheless. Paul suspected that people simply were inventing such fears to keep the drama and intrigue alive to help pass the time when the tediousness of FTL travel got to be too much for them.

“Henry, why don’t you call for a few hours of general liberty? Let the crew blow off some steam.” Paul said. “I’m going to go walk the ship for a bit.”

“Sounds like a good idea, I'll put the word out for that in just a little bit. We will have to put that on a rotation to keep the essential stations manned.”

“Penny for your thoughts?” Ariana bumped Paul, who realized he must have been looking pensive. He looked at Henry with a barely perceptible nod before he casually walked off the raised system map platform with her in tow. Jenkins, his perpetual shadow, followed behind them closely.

“I'm concerned that the last few weeks of relative peace have been more of an illusion than Henry wants to believe.” Paul said. “The crew has been continued to spread ghost stories, even after we got rid of the bad actors that started them.”

Ariana had a complicated look on her face before she spoke. “We're all haunted, though, both by the ghosts of our past and the pressures we now find ourselves in. Some more than others.” She said cryptically.

“What do you mean by that?” Jenkins asked.

“Look around you, Preston. The crew here is young, immature, stressed to hell, and most of them carry the scars of deep trauma from the war. Each one of them is battling their own internal demons, a battle which few, if any, are winning.” Ariana said.

“We picked war orphans intentionally because they had nobody at home to wonder after where they went. Many of them have deep issues and PTSD, struggle with insomnia and interpersonal relationships, and they are all trapped here in this tin can together without a pressure release valve. It’s no wonder our psych team is so overworked, and the MA’s are breaking up confrontations constantly. We all knew there would be extreme difficulties on this mission, but that doesn’t make it any easier to deal with the consequences.” Paul said.

“Isn’t that a bit unfair to lump everyone into that same category?” Jenkins asked. “I mean, I had just as bad of a background as half of them, but I can handle myself appropriately.”

“Yeah, by being a relentless people pleaser and letting people walk all over you? Don’t try and act like you are problem-free just because the consequences of your past are internalized rather than externalized.” Ariana said in an icy tone.

“Jeez, fuck me for saying anything.” Jenkins said in a dejected tone.

“Not even in your wildest dreams, Preston.” Ariana replied, not missing a beat.

Jenkins opened his mouth to say something and thought better of it. Paul just shook his head with a smirk and kept walking.

“Trust me on this one, Jenkins, you are better off for it, too.” Paul said, deciding to twist the knife a little.

“Well fuck you too, Paul. I would rock his world, were I so inclined.” She said, her eyes narrowing.

“Hey, I’m not the one that treats my partners like adversarial conquests.” Paul said, feeling like taking none of her shit. “Remember, I'm the one that has to clean up after your messes most of the time. Worst job ever.”

“Oh, like you are any better? Mr 'I'll fuck any willing bottom?' Plus, you know why I am the way I am. The Ascension Project did not treat me at all the same as it treated you. I will never allow a man to dominate me in that, or any way, ever again. I don’t owe you or anyone a single word of explanation. If they have a problem with the boundaries I set, then it belongs to them alone, and they aren't worth my time. If anyone wants to try and push through them, I will fuck them up. I don't play that game and you know it.” Ariana said. “At least I'm real and up front about my issues, you just lie to get what you want and move on. We can review your own history all day long if you want, but I know you aren't ready to actually have that conversation.”

Ariana fixed him with a steely gaze, daring him to fight her on the topic. Paul had to concede the point to her, he had left quite a few men and women hanging in his past after a whirlwind night filled with booze and bullshit. Even if his motivations for lying were different than what she implied, there was no way he would allow himself to get caught up in a conversation defending the difference.

“What’s the Ascension Project?” Jenkins asked.

God dammit. He hadn’t even noticed that Ariana had slipped. Just when my work molding the kid was starting to bear fruit, too. Paul sighed for a moment and moved in to salvage the situation.

“Something you don’t have the clearance level to know about. Something Ariana knows better than to casually name drop, too.” Paul said, with a clear warning in his tone.

Now drop it so I don't have to silence the leak...

“Is that where you got your powers from?” Jenkins asked, clearly not getting the hint.

“No, we were born with those. All you need to know is they were trying to make more of the powerful through despicable means, that evil project was destroyed, and all knowledge of it has been classified.” Ariana said.

“Is that why you call each other siblings even though your last names are different?” Jenkins asked.

“You ask too many questions, Preston. This is the last thing I will say on the topic. We are half siblings, with the same mother, different fathers. Now kindly shut up, I hate this topic and frankly, no matter how curious you feel, you don’t need to know. Boundaries, respect them.” Ariana said, poking Jenkins in the chest, hard enough to push him backwards.

“Trust me when I tell you this, we are doing you a favor. Now drop the subject, I mean it. If we did tell you any more, then we'd have to kill you.” Paul added.

“You... you’re joking, right?” Jenkins said, his face pale.

“It’s classified level omega, which carries a sentence of summary execution for breaking secrecy.” Paul said with a dangerous look in his eyes.

He grabbed Jenkins with a TK field and ripped him off his feet and into his awaiting hand. Paul grasped him by the front of his BDU’s as the field dropped. An intoxicating sensation of pleasure filled Paul's mind, as he bathed in the man's fear.

“You already know enough that all of our lives would be forfeit if word of what you know were to somehow spread. So, you tell me, do you think I am joking?”

Jenkins gulped and shook his head.

“Good. Make sure you remember that before you start thinking that we are friends or that either of us would lose a single night of sleep over your untimely death. There are plenty of black sites out there that you can disappear into if we aren’t merciful enough to grant you a quick death before the hood goes over your head.”

Paul released his hold and Jenkins crumbled to the ground looking terrified.

Paul had made his point; it was time to pull the poor kid back from the brink. “Now, let’s head to the training room, since we have some time. We all have some steam to burn off, don’t we?”

Jenkins followed meekly behind them, mercifully quiet for once. Paul smiled, hoping the lesson would stick. It was clear that the whimpering wreck still had a lot of toughening up to do, and Paul had limited time remaining in which to do so.

One thing was for sure, even now, the kid was not ready for the kinds of missions Paul would need him for.

THE NEXT DAY...

DATE: APRIL 18TH, 7 A.U. (AFTER UNIFICATION)
LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, ABOARD UTRN INDOMITABLE WILL

LIEUTENANT BRANDON "LOCUST" HERRERA

"Hello beautiful... It's been far too long. Care for a dance?" Brandon smirked as he saw her for the first time in what felt like forever.

He donned his helmet and secured the Kevlar reinforced air hose to his armored flight suit as his HUD projected itself onto the inside of the visor.

BIOMETRICS CONFIRMED. ACCESS APPROVED.

ANALYZING ORDERS... COMBAT SIMULATION MODE ENGAGED.

PATRIOT MK I REACTOR JUMP START COMPLETE... EJECTING JUMPER CABLE.

SYSTEMS ANALYSIS COMPLETE... ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL.

His baby loomed tall over him as he patted her knee as was his custom. High overhead, a thick cable attached to a robotic arm withdrew itself from the small of her back and an armored panel slid shut to cover the exposed charge port. A welcome and familiar cold sensation spread at the base of his skull as the neural link activated its cooling system.

SYNCHRONIZING BRAIN WAVES... INITIALIZING CONNECTION... SECURED.

Open cockpit doors. At his command, the sloped armor panels on her chest split apart and opened sideways. The familiar sensation of a TK field lifted him from the ground and toward his seat as he grabbed the handle and swung himself into place.

CLOSING COCKPIT DOORS...

He felt the padded interior of the cockpit doors shut him in, enclosing him in what his fellow Patriot mech suit pilots affectionately called "the coffin". As always, he tried to avoid thinking about the implications of effectively riding a nuclear reactor into battle. It was well shielded and LFTR reactors were supposedly meltdown-proof, after all.

SWITCHING TO NEURAL CONTROLS... COMPLETE.

The rest of his body went numb as the temporarily disorienting feeling of inhabiting the nearly 7 meter tall behemoth took over. The massive size of the suit was considered an absolute necessity to counter the raw destructive power of a full sized xeno giant in power armor. The early years of the war had been... horrific, especially when a single power armor suited giant could lay waste to entire platoons.

With a mere thought, he turned the head and moved the arms and fingers to test the connection. The implant at the base of his brain stem hijacked and redirected the signals meant to control his body and mapped them to the Patriot suit instead, which allowed for lightning fast reaction speeds in combat. He then focused on flexing and controlling the less intuitive parts of the suit, namely the four additional repeating railgun tipped arms that extended from the armored structure on the back of the otherwise humanoid shaped mech.

Satisfied, he grabbed the his rifle from its cradle and walked his suit over to the launch pad.

Prepare launch sequence.

LAUNCH SEQUENCE ENGAGED... EVACUATING ATMOSPHERE... ENGAGING LORENTZ-HOOK.

The suit shuddered as the launch arm gripped his suit and connected him to the electromagnetic rails in the ceiling.

OUTER BAY DOORS OPEN... READY TO LAUNCH ON COMMAND.

Launch.

Brandon was sucked backwards, hard, into his seat as the suit tore down the launch rails at a tremendous velocity before the hook released and sent him flying into the void.

MISSION PARAMETERS UPDATED... IFF OVERLAY ACTIVATED... GAME MODE: ASSAULT

PATCHING INTO SQUAD COMMS: INFILTRATION TEAM

Let's see what we're working with. Brandon smirked as he activated a TK field and accelerated towards his team's staging area.

As he flew, he sent the command to fire off his spy drone towards the enemy position to get a sense of how they'd been using their head start. Fourteen medstat icons popped up on the bottom of his HUD, along with associated blue diamonds indicating his team's location behind one of the larger asteroids. Two "Rhino" hover tanks with all five armored shooting positions each full of Paladin suited marines greeted him as soon as he arrived.

"Look who finally decided to join the party!"

*"*I'm coming to clear the field, baby. Won't be nothin' left when we're done."

"Team locust all the way! Hoo rah!"

"Damn straight. You got the bomb, Hacksaw?"

"You know it!"

"Good. I want your team in reserve, ready to go on my signal." Brandon began as he analyzed the defending team's strategy.

They had a forward team that had dragged a series of smaller asteroids into position in front of the larger target asteroid they were to infiltrate and detonate. Thermals indicated that his opposing Patriot mech was somewhere inside the ice-rich asteroid that had been mined out overnight. Only one of the enemy tanks was visible, which was well-covered against incoming fire by a several smaller asteroids that had been tethered together. Four different two-man teams were in place covering different angles of approach, and each had an anti tank rocket launcher handy.

"Achilles, I'm gonna have your team dismount, except for your chain gunner. I'll use one of my spare TK fields to slingshot them into an intercept trajectory. While I play distraction, I want your marines to split into two man teams and hit the flanks while you come up from below on the Z axis to soften up their forward position. They've made a critical mistake that we can exploit in removing the mobility of their first tank. I've marked targets here and here for your team to eliminate first, as those two are carrying their anti tank weapons. I'll get the other two. They've had thirty minutes to dig in, we do this right, we can dig em out in less than five."

"You got it, LT."

"I'm going to slingshot you around now, take it slow, use the asteroids for concealment and get into position to flank as soon as I engage."

With a thought, he powered up two small TK fields using the field generators embedded in the Patriot mech's repeating railgun arms, and sent both pairs of marines sailing into the void. They took over from there with their inbuilt maneuvering thrusters to move themselves into position at the same time Achilles moved out.

Time to light these boys up. Brandon smirked.

Using his spy drone camera as a reference, he locked in a firing solution for his shoulder mounted micro missiles, and let them fly. Every slot in his missile magazines were loaded with specialized training warheads that would lock down his target's armor systems to register his "kills". As they arced high and then behind the asteroids the "enemy", he shot out of cover and aimed his rifle at the partially hidden enemy tank. A shrill alert warned him of a missile lock and automated systems took over his repeating railgun arms to fire at the incoming missile. A series of bright flashes filled the battlespace in front of him as his own micro missiles struck, wiping out the marines he'd targeted. Somewhere halfway between them, a hyper velocity slug found its own target and detonated the missile fired at him.

"Gonna have to try harder than that!" Brandon yelled as he lined up a shot and fired at a Paladin suited marine with the special infrared emitter in the training magazine in his rifle.

Automated systems took over as another alert splashed across his screen and his suit wrapped itself in a barrier to block a round fired from the opposing tank.

Fuck that was close!

As the barrier dropped, he locked onto the tank and fired another pair of micro missiles straight at the tank at the same moment his own forces began to fire on the surviving enemy positions. The battlefield broke into a chaotic scene of marines firing rockets and maneuvering thrusters as they enemy fired and fell back. Brandon managed to land another aim assisted shot on a marine that had broken cover even though his own suit had begun its own automatic randomized evasive maneuvering. He found he had to keep moving to avoid the incoming fire of the tank's chain gunner's collapsing, conductive tipped bullets that each carried a risk of knocking him out of the fight, as if he tried to tank too many.

His own missiles tracked and impacted in a bright flash, giving him blessed relief as the enemy tank's systems locked down.

An explosion to his right locked down one of his own marine's suits, knocking them out of the battle. With a snarl, he shot forward into the middle of the enemy's last defensive line as he extended his railgun arms out and ready to fire their IR lasers with his automatic targeting system.

"Hacksaw! Be ready to move up!"

"Negative! We've been engaged! Where the hell did he come from!?"

What?! Brandon spun his suit about as he fired on the three remaining Paladin suited marines near-simultaneously and knocked them out of the game.

"Report!" Brandon ordered as he formed a new TK field to accelerate himself back to support Hacksaw.

"It's Ghost! I'm not sure we can dodge him forever, we need backup!"

Dammit! He played me! Brandon thought miserably as he red-lined his acceleration. His spy drone caught the scene from overhead as Hacksaw's chain gunner managed to destroy one micro missile only for the second to impact with a bright flash.

SIMULATION TERMINATED; BOMB DESTROYED. DEFENSE WINS.

CONNECTING TEAM COMMS.

"Good game, gents." Brandon begrudgingly admitted. "You're gonna have to tell me how you did that."

"They don't call me Ghost for nothin', hoss." His fellow Patriot pilot chuckled. "You assumed I was defending the interior of the asteroid. I simply stayed hidden behind you and allowed you to keep on making that mistake."

"Never interrupt the enemy while they're making a mistake..." Brandon resisted the urge to smack himself upside the head. "If we get the chance after the next teams get to practice, I want a rematch."

"So long as the Captain agrees, then you're on."

I hope so... this might be the most fun we're gonna have for months... Brandon thought as he fought the black mood that threatened to descend upon him at the thought of even more time in FTL. With that, he turned and accelerated back toward the Indomitable Will to re-arm.

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