BLOODY STARS

A

dropship tore through the fabric of space. The briefing deck within was dark, save for the ambient glow of info screens. The company anthem played as its soldiers stood at attention. Once the swell of music died down,  a woman's voice spoke in a cheerful rhythm to images that flashed in sequence.

“Manifold Industries. When you see our brand, you know what we stand for. Manifold means superior quality and better living. Manifold means paradise. At Manifold we strive to bring the very best products to the five greater worlds. Praise be to the consumer!”

“Praise be to the consumer!” all shouted in unison. 

The  ship lurched hard to the left, then right as it dodged deadly cosmic debris,  correcting its course. Nobody paid any mind, swaying back and forth unconcerned. The dropship was compact, smaller compared to other models in the company fleet. This ship was used  for speed strikes and tactical flybys. 

The corporate video played on. 

There were many company broadcasts for other missions, other soldiers, but this message Hornet Five knew by heart. She’d seen it played many times before a drop— The Hornet’s Prayer.

“It’s for the consumer’s happiness we conquer worlds, for their comfort that we defeat our competitors,” the prayer continued. Competitor logos went up on the screens. Soldiers booed and jeered.

“They want to take the consumer away from us. To take away the honor and glory of serving them! It’s the employee's purpose to serve. At Manifold the consumer is treated  like no other. ”

As the infomercial continued, Hornet Five's mind went to thoughts of the consumer worlds. Once a year employees were given leave for a day to visit these worlds of splendor, an option she denied herself in becoming a Hornet. She didn’t count herself  worthy to be among them. She’d seen the consumer worlds plenty of times in optic viewers and heard the stories of the paradises for civilians, which she and her fellow soldiers were not. They were members of a company. It was a line of work one either volunteered for or was born into. She was the latter— a seventh generation company employee. Yet a  fantasy of hers was to have been born to a civilian family, to have been raised as a consumer. She held this desire close and secret, but she knew the reality: she was Manifold’s property. And at this particular moment this property wanted the briefing to end. 

It was always the same before a mission. After the music and prayer messages a company executive would speak. The executive was always dressed pristinely in a luxury suit, a sign of his rank and status. She’d seen her fair share of  this type, they all looked the same: hungry eyes and mouths that never shut. 

Hornet Five watched him as he sat waiting his turn, mouthing words behind his hands, which were shaking excitedly. She noted how clean they looked, disturbingly so for the work that needed to be done. Finally the screens went blank and the executive stood. He raised his hands. Soldiers  saluted.

“Thanks for being here. I see standing before me the valuable family members of Manifold Industries. You’re needed now more than ever for our next exciting venture.”

He paused, taking a breath.

“In the next twenty-eight minutes, Jinx Corps’s extracting contract with Helic Inc will expire, which means we now have rights at stake, if we can take over and secure the territory before a new deal is signed with another competitor. We’ll have resource rights to Thrazer-13 and a claim to the Sheradin Glass Reserves.”

This was the way executives talked so soldiers could kill. Manifold could have taken the territory at any point, but they’d had to adhere to the planet’s unique cycles and the protected resource contracts of competitors. Executives ran their side of things with corporate jargon and left the hard work to the professionals. Now they could attack a rival company without breaking commerce-treaty laws. 

His speech came to its conclusion.

“Hornet Leader— do your thing! May the grace of President Van Holt guide you to victory.”

“With his grace we are ready! All hail Van Holt!”

The executive was gone and in his place stood Hornet Leader. Even his presence commanded silence. Twenty-two drop strikes, that's how many he’d survived, the highest on record. Hornet Five had survived three drops total, each of them in worlds inhospitable to human life, but rich in resources.

It was their job now to take out the Jinx  Corps warship’s targeting systems and rocket thrusters. Disarm and cripple.

Every Hornet wore a full Mech suit and were an arsenal unto themselves. The suits were flight-capable in space but too small to take on a heavy warship's firepower. They had, however, the capability to strike and maneuver swiftly on targets, beyond that of  any other small craft. At a price: Hornet Company's fatality rate was 75%. 

From Hornet Five’s vantage his face was half shadow, half starlight, all scars. Most Manifold employees opted for bio-grafts to give them a fresh face, but Hornet Leader said it was a sign of pride for all he had given to the company.

“This is a simple disarm and disengage”, said Hornet Leader. “They don't know we’re coming, so it’s fire-and-retire. Understood?”

They beat their chests in response.

“Hornets are always the first to strike, understood?”

They beat their chests.

“It’s for Manifold that we draw blood!”

They beat their chests.

“It’s through Manifold that we achieve greatness!”

They beat their chests.

“Who do we work for?”

“Manifold!”

“Who do we serve?”

“The consumer!” cried every mouth.

The rage and hatred for rival corporations burned brightly in the soldiers’ hearts— a fire fanned since childhood. These were children born not of a country or under a flag but into a company with a life-long contract.  

“Gear up, Hornets. Let’s move out!” 

They gave a final beat and marched towards their mission, to the drop-ports and into the cold embrace of space.

✦

heir objective was simple: disable the enemy ships. Manifold’s heavy armada was right behind them ready to drop the big guns (the old “hammer and fire”), but only after precise tactical incisions were made on the enemy. Their boots clanged, echoing through the narrow exit-port tunnels. Hornet Five walked down the hall lined with small viewports looking into space.

There was a heavy groan of metal as their ship slowed down above the planet. 

Each Hornet made their way into their Mechs. Hornet Five climbed into her Mech’s exoskeleton. Her helm lowered and she linked up with its computer, mentally activating its engines. The war gears whirled, wrapped and tightened around her until it was a second skin. She felt more alive inside a Mech, more herself within the big spinning gears and hydraulics-controlled movements of heavy impact-resistant armor. It was covered all over with Manifold logos. A shiver of excitement ran down her spine as she readied herself above the exit hatches. 

The future had come and new worlds had been explored, just as the leaders of forgotten countries had promised so long ago, but Terra-forming had not brought a utopian unity. Expansion just meant more territory to fight over. Governments faded and the rise of mega-companies had come to mean everything: corporations killing each other for resources, blood spilled into the cold void, the forever-thirsty drinking life force. 

Lights flashed, indicating the drop was imminent. Hornet Five silently nodded to her crew. There were ten of them.

To a company soldier, space was an endless, silent scream. Hornet Five relished the cold. It was a numbing balm. In her quiet moments, which were very few, she would look at the stars. Glancing now out of the many port-holes she saw them— countless, radiant wonders. They were distant, burning bright with a purity to their purpose just like her, just like a soldier, countless in multitude.

The lights flashed red and the hatches opened, exposing a view of the bright green orb they’d been ordered to take. It glimmered like a jewel in the celestial expanse. The comm crackled with Hornet Leader’s  voice.

“On me, Hornets!”

Flames ignited from Hornet Leader’s jet pack. He jumped, and Hornet Company followed. 

The silent descent commenced.

✦

he planet grew and grew, yellows and greens overtaking black till they were swallowed up in the horizon. Thrazer-13 was known as a planet of lost time, a world of swift days and swift nights. Its suns swung in rapid rotation, giving each astronomical event a span of three minutes. Its gravity and time was warped and dangerous to humans who, once in the Thrazer's environment, lost years of their natural lives in short periods. Only the most desperate companies put their people down below. 

The cold black of space gave way to the dark heat of the planet as they rapidly penetrated layers of atmosphere. The air was hot and deadly. Without a mask apparatus the world's vapors would quickly eat away most forms of organic material.  

Below was an endless sea of yellow-green and violet acid, bubbling with primordial fervor. Scanners detected tanker rig vehicles below, manned by Jinx Corps employees, sucking up the precious content that floated up from the bubbling acid sea. Thrazer-13’s seas were rich with valuable hot glass that naturally rose to the surface and formed molten hot masses of bright yellow.  

Hornet Company continued their descent. Hornet Five checked her screen for time. Three minutes before dawn. Three minutes was all they needed. Scanners in their helms lit up the approaching targets: thirteen enemy cruisers. They shot past countless Jinx Corps single-man ships, small fighters nicknamed ‘Flies’ for how they swarmed around large ships as an insect would  a living beast.

Five’s intercom crackled.

“On my command,” said Hornet Leader.

“Steady,” another Hornet intoned.

The group remained unseen.

“Steady...and ready...”

There was a shriek, and a piercing pain stabbed Hornet Five’s ears. Her comm crackled intensely with static, threatening to explode. She shut it off before it overheated and shattered her helm. They were being jammed. 

Jinx Corps knew they were coming. 

She was filled with rage. 

Someone in their own company had betrayed them. Corporate espionage was a harsh reality and such traitors would eventually be found out, tortured, and killed accordingly. A foot soldier was often prone to betrayal. Even an executive, for the right amount, but never a Hornet. ‘Never!’ she protested internally. It couldn’t have been one of Hornet Company, this much she knew and it gave her some brief comfort. She thought of the executive before the drop. The hands.

Bastard! She’d voice her suspicion to Hornet Leader and together Hornet Company would rip his heart out. There was no time to think of that now— thinking was not for a soldier —now was the time for action. The blinding light of active weapons burst through the black, bullets hot and white whirled past her, tearing the air and finding their mark on Hornet Nine. He was a blip of fire, then the shrapnel of his Mech and corpse rained down on the enemy ships. They retaliated. Explosions erupted in quick sequence along the length of an enemy cruiser as Hornet Company formed together and returned fire. Even without comms they knew what to do. 

Hornet Five released micro missiles from her Mech suit on the closest cruiser. The warship's blue thrusters turned orange then went dead. She fired again at the next cruiser, but there were too many Flies taking hits, turning into little balls of fire. She used mental activation to fire the next weapon, the thruster-buster, a huge gun that fired a single missile at a time. Without a Mech suit the kick from the thruster-buster would rip a human’s arms off. Hornet Five loaded, raised, and fired. She felt the Mech   hydraulics absorb the shock as the missile soared and hit a Fly who was flying too close for safety. Its explosion engulfed her in fire, but the Mech suit held true. She fired another, this one hitting a cruiser’s cannons that otherwise would have been firing at Manifold’s incoming support.

Hornet Five smiled as she flew past the world cruiser’s smoldering hull. As a child, she had watched televised company takeover battles with her parents, both of them workers in Manifold's vast assembly factories. Even then there was a savage proclivity held within her little frame, a trait the company fostered.

She smiled. She was the one being watched now.  

Her helm flashed warnings as three Flies launched missiles at her. She used this to her advantage. Missile patterns were a Hornet’s specialty. Jinx missile patterns were basic at best. Manifold’s corporate spies had uploaded the information for training months before the Thrazer-13 strike was even authorized.

Hornet Five gained the attention of multiple enemy craft until dozens of missiles had locked on her signature. What followed was a fanciful maneuvering of aerial acrobatics, worthy of any fleet parade— another Manifold specialty. Hornet Five shifted out of her loop, weaved down and through the pursuing Flies, returning their own missiles on them, resulting in a flurry of glorious, fiery pops. Not daring to look back, she only felt the shock waves.

✦

he approaching sunrise came swifter than any she’d ever seen, revealing above her the outline of ships too big for atmospheric entry. Manifold’s armada had begun its assault, igniting chaos. Jinx Corp engaged with their remaining weapons. Hornet Five watched as the faraway combat exploded into a blazing mosaic, the sky a furious storm of smoke and fire, thick burning clouds showering down the carnage of ships. The battle playing out now was beyond the conception of early man:  vehicles zipping between space and atmosphere, exchanging crippling blows on one another in the name of faceless companies, for the benefit of the five consumer worlds. 

Hornet Five let out a scream of savage joy. Hornet company came together as they all descended on the final Jinx cruiser. Hornet Leader and Hornets Two, Four, and Eleven took up the charge. She lost sight of their target as a dozens of new incoming Flies swarmed them. Hornets Three and Ten, each on opposite sides of her, discharged their Mech pulse guns. Waves of electrified force surged and fried the enemy ships and sent them plummeting into the acid sea below. Despite Hornet Company’s first-rate capability, surprise was never on their side. Jinx Corps's numbers were too great, and Hornets Three and Ten were hit by suicide fliers. Another set of explosions indicated they had flown their last mission. 

Hornet Five weaved and dodged the seemingly endless barrage of Flies, her wrist rifles shooting off short pressure bursts, ending the enemy targets permanently. In the utter chaos she found a profound clarity. This mental certainty lasted only so long— one came directly at her. The wrist rifles blazed as she shifted hard to her right and tore through the wing of an enemy fighter. Alarms went off in her helm indicating the jet-pack was damaged, putting her into a tailspin. She held course and aimed for a landing on a tanker rig below. It’d be a hard crash if she didn’t time it right. It was a fast hurtle, but the impact didn’t end in a burst of fire and metal. Her Mech suit screeched across the metal top of the rig. 

The tanker workers, who up until now had been spectators of the air battle, seized the opportunity to attack her. The Mech armor clanked and jolted as Hornet Five recovered with a roll and opened fire. 

The workers wore protective suits, but they were infinitely weaker than a Mech and they fell in bloody mists as she blasted through them. Her Mech rifles dispensed their last shells, but half a dozen targets still remained. She drew her industrial blade, squeezing the handle, and its edge pulsed with white-hot energy. She cleared the platform in hand-to-hand combat, the burning steel easily melting through their weak armor and swiftly cutting through their flesh. 

A bestial cry tore the air. The helm scanners picked up a hurtling object from the acid below. Hornet Five winced, knowing it was a Sheradin eel— a massive beast that got its name from being covered in the crystalline shell armor the sea provided. Their giant crystal-encrusted bodies caught the blinding light from the double suns as the creatures surfaced. From Hornet Five’s vantage point the green and yellow horizon was obscured and distorted by shaking heat waves.  Small dark dots wavered in the swirling colors of the extreme temperatures, other platforms hovering over the sea, their great vacuums sucking up the molten resource, to be transferred and converted into the most beautiful crystal in the five grater worlds. 

They seemed as liquid beams of light, but once hardened nothing is as strong as Sheradin glass. A multitude of extraordinary and ordinary uses were made with it— entire shimmering buildings, floors and ceilings, monumental sculptures, even fine cutlery. Not to mention the industrial uses. All for them, thought Hornet Five. 

Flaming ships and rubble continued raining down into the Eel's midst, who along with a group of other female eels and their young, gathered near the tanker rig. The worst possible scenario. The beasts of the acid sea knew nothing of corporate warfare, they simply wanted to defend their massive eggs, amicrest-like gemstones, held firmly along their behemoth lengths. The debris had crushed many of their young, and this had roused their wrath. Their cries of rage shook the air, intense light shined off of their shells as they surfaced above the acid, and launched their massive bodies at any vessel low enough to reach. 

Hornet Five saw one eel as it flung itself into the air, its horns ripping through a tanker’s hull, its body wrapping around it, crushing the hover engines and dragging the craft into the acid depths. The splash caused the  liquid to rain onto the platform where Hornet Five was standing. She dodged another cascade as a group of enemies were splashed and began melting. The tanker’s integrity gave and everything on it began to  shake. 

If the comms still worked the others would have heard Hornet Five laugh, not fearfully or in a manic insanity, but real enjoyment.

She leapt from one tanker platform to the next, her burning knife plunging into the chest of a frightened marauder. The force of her body knocked past the rest of them. They attacked her with miscellaneous tools. She parried and cut through them with two-strike combos.  The melee was cut short as a Fly (flaming from damage) shot at her in its last attempt to kill a Hornet. 

She dodged, but the men around her exploded from its attack, the metal from the tanker twisted with holes. She waited, holding her ground, timing her next move just perfectly. The descending Fly gained speed. She could almost hear the pilot screaming a death cry. 

She dodged in a right-roll as the Fly smashed into the platform behind her. It exploded and the force sent her flying forward on her Mech's stomach, still alive but dazed.

Night came swiftly again. 

Hornet Five began to rise when she was hit hard on the back and fell forward. 

Debris from the crash? 

There was another hit, brought down with intense force. She dodged a third blow from her enemy— the last one left. Her attacker was another Mech suit, made for heavy lifting and twice her Mech’s size. It came at Hornet Five welding a cargo wrench the length of her entire suit. 

The blow shattered her knife which she’d held up to defend herself. The opposing Mech was controlled by an old man, no doubt aged by this strange harsh world. Hornet Five gave a running start and used her failing jet pack to boost her speed, winding up and bringing down a hard left hook on the Jinx Corps Mech. The impact broke her Mech's arm and the enemy’s helm. The glass shattered and poisonous air began to eat away at his face. But he held his ground and swung wide. It was hard to block with just one arm. Her suit suffered major dents from his blows. Finally her attacker went limp, all  facial features melted away. 

Day came swiftly again. Sparks erupted at her Mech’s feet. Not enemy fire, but a signal. Hornet Five looked up and saw Hornet Leader flying in. Behind him were Hornets Seven and Nine. They were breaking protocol under his orders! A pang of resentment hit her gut, but she knew better than to disobey Hornet Leader’s command.

✦

ornet Leader was having trouble with the extra load. The other Hornets had caught the attention of another Sheradin eel. It retaliated by pushing its mass alongside the tanker rig. The platform tilted, its hover engines already weak. Dead bodies slid into the acid sea and fizzed, melting too quickly to see in the green waters. As gravity took hold and the platform began to incline, Hornet Five fired a hook-and-line grappler for the other Hornets could tow her with. Hornet Leader caught it, rappelling her up just as the rest of the structure collapsed. Hornets Seven and Nine laid fire down on the Sheradin eel, its mouth snapping furiously and its quick movements causing dangerous waves. The two Hornets tumbled in the air, their jet-packs spinning, and they gave up. Their weapons had barely caused damage on the creature’s glass shell. They flew off back toward the armada. 

Time was running out. The evacuation ship in the atmosphere would leave them to die. 

 Hornet Leader turned in time to see the gaping jaws of an eel. 

In a split second both he and Hornet Five were in the beast’s mouth, sliding down its burning throat. They failed to gain track along the creature's mucus-thick lining. Still attached by the cable and with  only one good arm, Five was dead weight. They slid down further until, they imagined, they were in the cavern of the beast’s stomach. They tumbled forward in the intestinal slop and were caught on a cluster of nerves and membrane. Their suits began to steam from the corrosive stomach acid that hung about as a mist.

It was quiet, save for the beating of the eel’s many hearts. A strange moment of calm. Their helms allowed vision in any condition, and penetrated the stomach’s acid mist. They looked at one another unable to speak. He’d put her safety before the mission objective. 

Why? 

If their roles were reversed she’d have left him to die. His actions showed aspects of human decency she couldn't reciprocate, let alone understand. They had been conditioned out of her. When the strains of factory labor had taken her mother and father, she had not mourned. No, she was glad— it was an honor serving one's purpose to better the consumer worlds.  Factory workers died just as did a Hornet: all for them. 

He broke the silence with a harsh hand signal to fall in and follow his lead. A Hornet’s job was to act, not think.

Hornet Leader handed her his thruster-buster and raised his wrist rifles. She followed his lead and they fired at the creature’s insides, rupturing through its soft tissues till it rained the beast’s blood. 

The crystal shell caved in from the inside. Hornet Leader’s jetpack ignited— they were out before the acid ocean poured through the shell. 

The world outside was a mayhem of raining debris. Jinx Corps’s forces were in a final death rattle. Hornet Leader and Five ascended toward their ship but they weren’t moving as fast as they should.

She knew what needed to be done and detached her line. 

Hornet Leader turned for a moment but continued up, knowing her sacrifice meant that another mission would be properly finished.

✦

ornet Five fell as day again swallowed night. Against all odds she landed hard on the slowly melting carcass of the beast they had killed. Her Mech   was still intact save for the broken arm. No acid got inside.  Her back was broken, but the suit moved her within its own structure and she managed to roll over. 

All she wanted to do was look up and see the stars. 

Her last fight was to stay alive for the next three minutes until night came. Three minutes was all a member of Hornet Company needed. 

She gazed up and could see Manifold was victorious. The battle was over and the enemy beaten, the mission a success.  If she could, she would have beat her chest with them. 

Jinx Corps’s systems were no longer jamming the comms. She sent a brief message outlining her suspicions of the executive. It gave her comfort thinking of what Hornet Leader would do to that traitor.

Finally she lay still, spitting out mouthfuls of blood. Unable to move, she gave up, hoping the bleeding would  stop. 

The ships were engulfed by the night atmosphere and replaced by the stars, twinkling and countless, small lights in forever darkness. Hornet Five’s vision began to fade and her mind drifted back to her secret dream. She could see them, the citizens of the consumer worlds, deities living a life withheld from a corporate employee. Cities of comfort, endless pleasures, with towers that stretched beyond what the eye could see, their tops almost piercing space itself. Cities of people— real people, not like her and her co-soldiers, unworthy of such beauty —laughing in bright clothes under colorful lights. 

Whether they knew of the blood spilled for their bliss— what did it matter, she thought, if they had their Sheradin crystal? All that mattered was that they continued to live a life of many splendors, provided by the companies. They were beautiful because they were free. Free to buy whatever they wanted for luxury and comfort— she had bought this with the bullets in her gun and the edge of her blade. It was all for the consumer. 

She smiled, recalling The Hornet’s Prayer and truly believed it, its message bright in her heart. Its words declared her love for them, paid with violence, a sacrifice on the altar of war and commerce. In the end, she was just another bloody star. 

“All for them,” she whispered. “Praise be to the consumer.”