“Pieces of self-regenerating matter from the ancient life form Machaeus. They were spread across several galaxies when the mission of the Arcadia failed… A mission Wagner and I were assigned to, Arms Master Kalus Delphi.” Howard explained. In the presence of so grievous a revelation, Kalus almost wished he hadn’t made that ridiculous joke of a request.
“You mean to tell me… You found pieces of that…monster, and all you thought to do with it was inject it into the planet?” Wagner demanded. He took a threatening step toward Howard, which Demi intercepted with a hand across his chest. The Captain shook his head once in warning.
“We couldn’t destroy it, if that’s what you think we should have done. We could only split it into a smaller form. We thought breaking it down to a subatomic level might do it, but… Well, I predicted it would have a result similar to the old Atom Bomb. I believe that is what happened on Mukurus, when Drogan faced Machaeus,”
said Howard.
“Drogan? That… That story is…” Lilia muttered, suddenly numb.
“Oh, it’s no story, sweetheart. The half-breed is real, and he almost blew us to hell. He killed Captain Miller, and he spread this plague across the gal-”
“He couldn’t have known. I didn’t know, until I had a specimen to take apart in my lab,” Howard cut him off. His voice had a fire in it no one amongst the group could have predicted. “Drogan was trying to help us, and God only knows where he ended up for it.” Wagner bunched up a shaking fist. At Demi’s warning grasp of his shirt, however, he let it swing down at his side.
“So… Why inject the Chrysum with…M-Particles?” asked Sophia.
“I found, in my and your uncle’s research, that M-Particles will seek out Chrysum. Machaeus itself isn’t made of Chrysum - I don’t know if it’s actually made of any one thing, but it can use Chrysum to generate more matter for its form,” said Howard, “We shoot the M-Particles down to break the ice. They try to carry it up, to collect it in a focus zone, which happens to be right where a battery of propellers breaks the whole mess to tiny bits.”
“Let me guess - you suck it all up, filter the M-Particles out, then reuse them?” Kalus posed.
“Arms Master Kalus Delphi is correct,” Howard affirmed. At last, Lilia slapped her brother in the back of the head.
“Will you please tell him he doesn’t actually have to- ah!” Lilia quieted instantly when a propeller collided into a giant black mass behind her. The congealing mass of Machaeus was battered to dark dust, and sucked up through the vents in the Reactor along with all the Chrysum-ice in its clutches.
“I don’t know, Howard… Much as we owe our misfortunes to Machaeus, this seems a little sick. And more than a little dangerous,” Wagner grumbled.
“We owe the advancement of settlements in the Outerworlds to tech like this. The Reactor on Neptune. The Floating City on Jupiter. The new Rings of Saturn,” Howard told him. He turned to face the Dogs of War, his face uneasy under the gravity of the truth he had to share. “It’s the reason we have a SkyLine Launcher on the Cerberus. Which is the only way we’re going to beat the Dragons. They want to target our supply routes, box in our civilizations, then snuff them out.”
“You… You know how to operate it?” Sophia asked, her cheeks the slightest bit flushed. “I read the manual, but…I didn’t really understand it - not fully.” Howard’s lips twitched into something like a smirk.
“Why don’t we head back to your ship, and I’ll show you?” he said. “I did invent it. Now, as you know, the SkyLine’s resting state resembles a gas, with the nanocomputers floating in a formless cloud. This allows solid objects to pass through, until we need it...” Howard went on for the next two hours.
Chapter Nine: Maiden Blood
Between the stormy steel bridge fiasco and their trip into the Reactor’s Chrysum collection arm, the Dogs of War were exhausted. Howard took them and a yet disgruntled Wagner back up the elevator. They dragged their feet, even across the spectacular light ripples of the aquarium lounge. Howard led the group through the hidden door to the Reactor, back down the staircase bridge and through the city to a tavern and inn. Several sections of its previously slick silver-slatted roof had been torn free and patched with corrugated tin. The way it rattled in the stormwinds made the Dogs shudder at the thought of what the Reactor’s dorms were like. According to Howard, they were in no condition he’d bestow on a guest.
“Well…this is where I leave you guys. I’ve got to report to the Marre barracks,” said Wagner at the door to the Icefringe Tavern.
“Thanks for your help, Wagner,” Demi nodded with an outstretched hand to represent his unit. Wagner took it for a hardy shake.
“You guys might just be crazy enough to tango with the Dragons. My hope honestly does go with you,” he smirked. His pupils rolled over to the very edge of his eyes, to scrutinize Howard. They stuck there for only a second, in which he looked like he might have stepped on a nail. “Safe journey.” Wagner about-faced and headed off for the barracks on the other side of the ring. The Dogs watched him shrink into the patchwork of storefronts.
“He’s still sour about the Arcadia mission, huh?” guessed Kalus. Howard nodded, eyes tracking his friend until he disappeared.
“We all are. We lost friends because of Machaeus. Our first Captain, confirmed dead. Our second, missing. I don’t blame him for being wary,” he murmured to the floor. His head snapped back up at the sudden awareness of the company at his side. “But I’ve been studying the behavior of M-Particles since the Reactor went up. They seem to act with a singular will, but the propellers of the collection arm are specifically programmed to break them up long before they become a threat.” Hearing it explained a second time did little for the group’s confidence in the system, despite having watched it at work.
“Just…glad you’re on our side,” Demi smiled, and patted Howard on the shoulder. With that, their guide led them inside the tavern.
Though wind rattled the replacement shingles across the roof, the Dogs of War found a surprisingly comfortable night’s sleep in the upstairs rooms of the Icefringe Tavern. Between heating elements in the warmth-retaining walls and thermal blankets, the owners of the place had well mastered keeping guests comfortable through Neptune’s frigid nights. Captain Demi was as surprised as the rest of his crew to find that those nights were actually shorter than the ones of their home planet.
He woke with the first crack of orange across the dark and light swirls of Neptune’s slushy oceans. Demi was the first up and the first to the tavern below. It was an odd thing, to be scrutinized by the Ice Giant’s natives for abstaining from liquor at sunrise. But Demi had only come for coffee and the weather. He found both as a self-service, one on the television behind the bar and the other up for grabs on a corner table. Demi slid fifteen credits across the table and refused change as a tip. He’d done a brief tour on Neptune once before, when Calliope had been the extent of human settlement. He had no honest idea about how people could live out there with no hope of relief.
Demi gave his crew the luxury of the six hours’ rest they were accustomed to. At the very end of it was when he pistol-butted the hollow heating pipe in the wall of their shared quarters. He treasured the cackle he got out of the perfectly symmetrical upright jolt of the four in their beds. He knew it might be his last chance for a while. With Howard in tow, the thick of the assignment was ahead.
“Look alive, Dogs!” Demi laughed, “That includes you now, Howard! I could have been a Chrysum mortar or a Dragon crashing through the roof! I hope you all treasured last night’s sleep, because it was the last full night any of you get!” Demi tested his crew by giving them a groggy, idle minute to interject, which he was well prepared to shut down immediately. All, however, were silent. “We’ll have a system of watches, and Lilia, you’re going to have to learn to trust the autopilot.”
“Ye-yes sir,” she muttered into her bunched up sheets.
“We need eyes out on the deck at all times. The Dragons want to cut human supply lines. We’re making new ones. You can bet each one of our asses that they’re going to come for us. Am I clear?” Captain Demi asked.