Sisterhood of Suns: Daughters of Eve Page 4

  It was a combination of her usual hand-loaded rounds and the new Malandrium-coated armor piercing bullets. The Corps was pushing for its snipers to adopt the ‘black bullets’ for use against the latest Hriss body armor, and to take out machinery with greater effectiveness.

  The Malandrium rounds had a thin coating of synthetic carbon over a layer of the classified substance. Beneath this was a spent uranium penetrator, also covered in the same secret material, and encased by a jacket of conventional soft lead.

  The concept behind this arrangement was that the carbon coating would preserve the rifle barrel when the bullet was fired, and then the special coating and the ultra-hard uranium spike would work together to punch through the enemy’s armor. Once inside, the spike itself would continue onwards, while the dense overcoat and pliable lead fragmented and mushroomed. In effect, the new ammunition was an updated and miniaturized version of ancient anti-tank/anti-armor projectiles, combined with proven anti-personnel features.

  Kaly was particularly interested in how it would perform ballistically, and what kind of changes she would have to make to compensate for the greater overall weight of the bullet itself. She knew that it would certainly have a steeper drop rate down-range, notwithstanding the increased powder charge.

  But if it had the kind of ‘punch’ that the Corps experts and the arms makers of Nightshade claimed it did, then she was willing to suffer the inconvenience. Only live fire, on the range, and later, in the field, would tell one way or the other.

  Satisfied with the state of her ammunition, she activated the lane and chambered one of her standard rounds for the first cold shot. It would be fired at a holographic target.

  Early morning 02:08 hours, early spring, she thought. Moderate humidity, mild wind speed, random wind seed.

  The lights around her dimmed until they were a perfect copy of the hour’s grey uncertainty. The temperature and moisture also changed to match the new conditions.

  Ready, Kaly raised the rifle and called up her target.

  She had selected the image of a Hriss warrior, standing at a distance of 160 meters. Bringing up the scope, its integrated psiever-based crosshairs appeared and she quickly centered them on the creature’s secondary eyes. Wind and temperature variables shifted as she did so, and she made slight adjustments, keeping her virtual enemy in view.

  Then she relaxed, concentrating on her breathing and stilling her thoughts. Her effort was no less intense than a Selenite priestess going into meditation, and much closer to her heart. Gradually, all of her concerns about the team, and its ultimate fate now that it was leaderless, faded and retreated.

  At last, at the very knife-edge of perfection, when nothing else in the universe existed except herself, the shot and the target, she fired. The round hit the image right in one of its virtual eyes, a shot that would have killed it instantly had it been made of living flesh.

  Next, she loaded in one of the Malandrium rounds, and ordered the system to send out another target. This time, it was not a hologram, but a piece of genuine chest armor from a captured Hriss warrior, and filled with ballistic gel.

  Her targeting system immediately warned her that the heavier bullet would do exactly what she had suspected it might, and drop much faster than her standard load. Ordering a change in the hold-over with her psiever, she steadied herself, and fired again.

  She could feel the difference in Tatiana’s anti-recoil system, but she wasn’t overly concerned. The new ammunition was still well within the weapons tolerances and the carbon coating was protecting the barrel.

  The round itself hit her virtual target squarely, placing exactly where she had wanted it to go. There was also an added plus that only became obvious when she walked downrange and inspected the armor.

  Her shot had punched right through the heavy ceramic and metal plating, and once inside, had made an unholy mess of the gel before blowing a hole through the rear plating. Duly impressed, she returned to her firing position, and eagerly loaded another round.

  After spending ten minutes visiting more destruction on both real and digital enemies, she realized that she had finally found what she had come to the range for. Not only had she proven the new ammunition’s effectiveness to her own satisfaction, but with Tatiana in her arms, all of her inner confusion had been banished as well. As it always had, precision brought clarity.

  Kaly’s serenity didn’t last however. When she had fired all of her ammunition, retrieved the spent bullets for reloading, and then cleaned and secured her rifle, she received a message on her psiever. It was from Major n’Neesa herself, and addressed to everyone in Team Five.

  Meeting; all Team 5 members. My office, it said. Your soonest.

  Filled with foreboding, Kaly rushed to her rack and changed into fresh fatigues. When she met up with them, T’Jinna and Margasdaater looked just as concerned.

  “You zhink zat ziz iz about our new Team Leader?” Margasdaater asked. Even though the Major had promised them that the team would stay together under a new leader, they had all worried that something would come up to prevent this.

  “I don’t know,” Kaly answered. “Maybe it’s good news.” Her instincts whispered otherwise, but it still reassured her to say this.

  When they reached the Major’s office, Corporal n’Darei showed them in, and they stood at attention in front of the Major’s desk, waiting for what she had to say. N’Neesa, as always, got straight to the point.

  “Ladies, at ease,” she said. “I have some bad news. The Corps won’t be sending you a replacement Team Leader. Division decided that they needed her somewhere else.”

  “Ma’am,” Kaly asked, “Permission to speak?”

  “Granted, Trooper.”

  “Ma’am, they’ll still be sending someone else, won’t they?”

  The Major shook her head. “No, Corporal. There won’t be anyone else.” Kaly’s heart plummeted.

  N’Neesa paused, giving them time to digest this news before pressing on. “As your commander, this leaves me with only one option; split up Five and reassign each of you to other teams, and if we can’t find slots for you here, post you elsewhere.”

  True to her training, Kaly showed no emotion and remained at parade rest, like her companions. Inwardly however, she was as horrified as they were. Team 5, for all its flaws, had become her family. Now that family was being broken apart.

  “Before I do anything, I need to tell you about one other option,” the Major added. “It’s not mine to exercise however. It’s something that only you can decide on. I have to warn you, you may not find it to be quite as attractive.”

  Kaly couldn’t imagine what would be less appealing than reassignment or a new posting, and she tensed in anticipation.

  “There are some women coming aboard two days from now. They’re with the RSE and they want to speak with us. For the record, I’m not happy about it, but the Commandant’s Office has ordered me to cooperate, and I think in your case especially, you’ll want to listen very carefully to what they have to say.”

  Enlisted Briefing Room, Five-Bar, USSNS Pallas Athena, Battle Group Golden, Topaz Fleet, In Orbit, Nuvo Bolivar, Argenta Provensa, Esteral Terrana Rapabla, 1048.07|03|03:49:02

  Every team that called the Athena its home was present. The briefing room was packed with Marauders, and to a woman, they sat quietly, waiting to hear what their visitors had come to tell them. There had been all sorts of rumors circulating around Five-Bar; everything from some new joint mission with domestic law enforcement, to a total takeover of the military itself by the RSE. Nobody knew the truth, but everyone knew someone else that was certain that they did. Rumors were part of a soldier’s life, and so was the collective sense of relief that everyone had that many of these speculations were either about to be confirmed, or dispelled. For most of them, knowing, even if it was a confirmation of the absolute worst, was always preferable to blind conjecture.

  Major n’Neesa took her place on the small stage at the head of the room, along
with Lt. sa’Kaali, and their guests. There were three of them, all dressed in the severe black uniforms of the new state police agency, and as Kaly took her seat, she didn’t get the sense that any of them were intimidated in the least by sitting in front of a group of the Sisterhood’s most elite fighting force.

  Rather, they all seemed quite calm, and if she had had to put a word to it, were appraising their audience. One of them in particular caught her eye, a tall, slim Aran with pronounced Asiatic features who immediately met her gaze. What Kaly saw there was the same familiar strength that she had always found in N’Elemay’s eyes, and in any real leader of women.

  The arrowhead with three bars on her tunic sleeve only confirmed this. She was a Senior Troop Leader, which meant that she had been serving for decades, and that she was a professional’s professional. In the Marines, she even outranked their former Troop Leader, and any officer with sense would defer to her judgment in the field. Noticing what Kaly was looking at, the woman rewarded her with a slight smile, and then turned her attention to Major n’Neesa.

  “Ladies, thank you for coming here today,” N’Neesa began, “As you may have heard, the Marionites have been engaging in ever increasing acts of terrorism against the Sisterhood. Just today, a group calling itself the ‘Daughters of Eve’ attacked a Police precinct in Thermadon.”

  “Although the terrorists were all killed, the danger is not over by any means. In addition to this incident, there have been isolated assaults on other government buildings, as well as several bombings.’

  “Our allies in the Esteral Terrana Rapabla are also facing a similar threat from a dissident group that has identified itself as the Loyalistas. We have reason to believe that this group is actively seeking to unite with the Marionites in order to threaten our peace and security’

  “Pursuant to this, last week, the Chairwoman announced a new emergency measure. The Regila par Securite da Estat, which as you might recall, was recently established to coordinate our law enforcement and intelligence agencies, has been given a new mission.’

  “From now on, all police organizations, throughout the Sisterhood, will become part of the RSE, and function as one unified crime-fighting agency. The RSE itself has also been granted full police powers. What this means is that the Sisterhood now has a truly national police force at its disposal to wage an all-out war against terrorism.’

  “The Chairwoman has called upon the Corps to lend a hand, especially in the ETR. Our mission there will be to work closely with the RSE, and the Republican military, and help them to defeat the Loyalistas. Ladies, to put it plainly, we are at war again--and this time it’s right at home, and in the ETR.”

  “These women,” she said, gesturing to their guests, “have joined us today to tell you more about the RSE’s new mandate and what you can do to help.” She inclined her head towards the nearest woman, who wore the rank tabs of a captain.

  The officer stood, and smiled pleasantly at the Troopers. “My name is Captain Hanna n’Jerra, and as the Major said, I work for the RSE. I have something that I’d like to show you before we get started. I think that it will explain things a lot better, and afterwards, those of you who are interested, can ask us for the details.”

  She closed her eyes. The lights in the room dimmed and a holo began to play. The scene it depicted was the interior of a typical Marine assault shuttle and the holocam was centered on a young woman dressed in Marine-issue combat gear. Seated around her were other Marines, also equipped for combat.

  What Kaly saw was someone very much like her own people back on Persephone; the trooper had fair skin, sandy blond hair, hazel eyes and a touch of freckles--a typical Thermadonian Sub-class G genotype. What she didn’t realize, and what none of the other Marauders in the room grasped, was that each one of them were seeing something different than the woman sitting next to her.

  For T’Jinna, the Marine in the holo was a Sireeni, and for Margasdaater, a Zommerlaandar. To others she was a Kalian, or a Trilani, a Nemesian, or any one of the dozen genetic groups that comprised the women of the Sisterhood.

  In reality, the presentation was more than a simple holo. It was a clever union of an AI, which read their individual bio chips, and a psiever-transmitter that made certain that what they were about to watch was specifically tailored to the individual viewer. The RSE wanted these women, and much more than any of them could imagine.

  “I was a Marine, just like you,” the Marine said to Kaly, “and I served my nation, just like you’re serving it right now.” As she spoke, the shuttle shuddered and bounced, and the speaker looked around her for a moment and then grinned. “You know what I mean. You’ve been there yourself.”

  The camera tightened in on her face, and then zoomed out again. Now she was in a different costume. It was a police uniform, and she was walking to her patrol cruiser under a bright alien sun.

  “When I got out, I joined the force,” she continued. “I still wanted to help out. I wanted to go on and protect my community, and to help keep them safe.”

  The Marine smiled and acknowledged a fellow officer as she entered her hovervehicle. “I guess I’m like that. I’ve always cared enough about my sisters to do something about it.”

  The camera tightened in again, and Kaly wondered what she would see next. When it came up, it was both a surprise, and something that she had already half-expected. The Marine was back in the assault shuttle again, but this time everyone was garbed in dark black combat gear with the word “POLIZ” prominently displayed on their shoulders and across their backs.

  “I’m still serving my community, and my nation,” the Marine said, “but now I’m helping to protect it against a new enemy. It’s not the Hriss, or the Tee-Laks.’

  “It’s a new enemy, right here at home, on my streets, in my community. And the skills I learned as a Marine are coming in pretty handy.”

  She paused and her face became grave. “I’m fighting against terrorism.” At this, the familiar ready klaxon sounded in the troop bay. As Kaly tensed involuntarily, the woman secured her helmet, and rose from her seat with the rest of her team.

  The sally-port doors opened, and the squad rushed out. But the Marine lingered, just one step away from exiting.

  She gave Kaly a long, meaningful look. “Well, Marine? What’s it gonna be? You gonna help out? You know we can’t do it without you.”

  Then she was gone, running off to join her squad.

  The scene faded to black, and then a final message appeared. It was displayed in simple white letters; “The RSE: an old mission. A new uniform.”

  With this, the lights came back up and the Captain smiled at them again. “So there you have it, troopers. Like the lady in the holo said, we’re fighting against terrorism and we need everyone that we can get.”

  “Today, we’re here to make each of you an offer, which we’re hoping you’ll accept. The RSE is expanding its Special Response Units. These SRU units are very similar to your Marauder Teams, but their main job is to work domestically. In fact, most of the women we have working on the SRU Teams served in the Corps before coming over to us.’

  “Now I know that some of you are sitting there right now thinking, ‘So? What’s in it for me?’ and ‘why the fek would I want to leave the Corps? I love the Corps! The Corps is my home.’ I should know; I was part of Brigit’s Bitches over in the Copper Fleet before I decided to join the Agency.”

  Kaly leaned forwards in interest. Captain n’Jerra had just managed to sum up exactly what she and her companions had been thinking. She was very curious to hear what the woman’s explanation would be.

  “Well, here’s the answer. First, I never really left the Corps, and neither will any of you. If you sign on with the RSE, you’ll become an ‘inactive reservist, no restrictions.’’

  “What that means is that you can leave us at any time, and go right back to your old job--if it’s still available, or to something just like it. You’ll keep your rank, or walk back through the ‘lock with the
rank that you earned with us. That’s straight from the Commandant herself, by the way.’

  “Second, you’ll be doing the same job for us that you’ve been doing here, but with one bonus; you’ll be working at home. That means you’ll be taking an active role protecting your sisters right there in your own communities, not on some dirtball in some goddess-blasted ass end of nowhere. Unless you want that, and as the Major explained, some of our Teams will be fielded with the Marines in the ETR. That will be your call though, and if your klaxxy enough to ask for it, we’ll make sure that you rotate back home when your time is up. That’s a promise from our Director.’

  “There’s a lot more besides. We’re offering a generous sign-up bonus, the chance for transfer to other departments if you want to try out something new, our own benefits package, and here’s the best part; you also get to keep all the perks that the Corps gave you. That includes your veteran’s benefits, and full access to military transportation for yourself, your pairmate, and your dependents, at no cost.” She paused, and then added, “So that is why I signed up, and it’s also why I hope that you’ll decide to do the same thing.”

  “Now, these ladies behind me are both part of our SRU Teams, and they came along so that you could ask them what it’s like, and to answer any specific questions. They’re not ‘soft-suits’ either. Senior Troop Leader Ben Di,” she said, indicating the woman Kaly had made eye contact with, “was in the Corps for 20 years, and came to us as a Senior Troop Leader. She ran a Marauder Team of her own. She’s been there, just like you, and then some.’

  “Her partner, Troop Leader t’Lyssa did ten years in the Teams. Oh and I almost forgot--me. I joined the Corps as a hatchie, and I served during the War of the Prophet right along Senior Troop Leader Ben Di. So, I guess I rate, even if I am an officer.”

  That finally broke the ice and got some of them to laugh, politely. “So, that’s our pitch. I’ll leave the rest to my teammates. Major?”