FREEFALL: A LT FREYA NOVEL - CHAPTER 7 - Honesty

Chapter 7

Honesty

Freya woke to a pitch black night. Dark clouds blocked the blue glow of Roth summer. Her paws found nothing in the darkness except the hard edge of her bed and blankets. Before she could bring up her HUD to activate night scan, the mode kicked in automatically.

“That’s handy, Sharak.”

[I predicted your needs with a 98.8% accuracy, Miss Freya.]

In shades of green she peered around her shack on the edge of the camp to find she was alone.

“Kiira?” She asked out loud, receiving no response.

Before she could even think of it- heatmap mode activated and confirmed she was alone in the shack. However, the fading trace of residual heat in the shape of pawprints tread a path to the door. If Kiira was gone she hadn’t gotten very far yet.

“Where could she be going? ...Any thoughts, Sharak?”

[With 100% accuracy I can predict she is on a path to the global defense system’s primary console.]

“What?”

The air had turned cool in the night and Freya felt a shiver as she rushed at the door. She was naked except for a pair of olive drab panties and stopped long enough to grab Captain Morrison’s jacket. As she slipped into it Sharak interrupted.

[Miss Freya, your Mark II]

“I’m not going to fucking shoot her, Sharak…”

Sharak switched Freya’s vision to target mode as she answered, [It is not for Kiira, obviously. Please take it now.]

With the rifle slung over her shoulder Freya exited her shack into the camp where the target scan lit up in several different places.

“What the fu… Sharak there is nothing there. What are you trying to do? Those are housing units. They’re full of humans. If I fired I’d-”

[Prepare your weapon, Miss Storm. Please.]

With a huff she readied her rifle, plugging the ribbon into her access port and scanning the grounds. The streets remained silent and cool.

“This is fucked… if you knew Kiira was going to… why didn’t you tell me?”

[You would have tried to stop her and in every model that placed you outside your dwelling at this moment.]

“Why what the fuck is-”

Each target alert on her scan sprang into motion as distance valuations began to display and correct. Dark figures in reflective face shields stood in weapon ready positions and began to motion to each other.

“Ghosts,” Freya whispered before instinct took control of her paws.

Six plasma bolts fired from her rifle, the used shells ejecting into the dirt and sizzling as they landed. Freya watched the face shields shatter and the figures drop. Less than a breath later artificial light flooded the street as humans, soldier and civilian, poured from the repurposed buildings in response to gunfire.

Freya caught Darude’s eye in the growing crowd and padded up to him. The vestigial huntress in her took over as an active target scan continued to confirm no more Ghosts had landed.

“Fucking hell, Freya… Where did-”

“Darude. Something’s happening. Get the general. There’s going to be more. A lot more. I won’t be here to see the coming next time so get everyone who's abled armed and everyone who is not somewhere safe.”

“Freya what is hap-”

She reached down to his belt, a familiar place her paws had been time and time before. Instead of the intimate moment’s they had shared before, however, she unhitched his pistol and removed it from his holster- shoving it into his chest.

“Darude this is it. Understand?”

The moment Freya saw recognition flash in his eyes she turned her back and followed the path to the Defense Console. Behind her the sounds of orders being barked, children crying out, and gasps of fear swelled into white noise. She blocked it out and set her eyes forward, stalking Kiira’s path to the console. As she topped the hill on which it stood she could make out the light impressions of Kiira’s pawprints in the grass.

The console was housed in what used to be a secure location, guarded all hours of the day by four augmented soldiers and DNA keyed to authorized personell only. Once the rebels had taken the base they outright removed the security features and had left the station manned by one man at all times. As she passed the threshold Freya saw him sprawled on the floor with a swollen jaw.

“Kiira…?”

The light from the console silhouetted the lapine as she worked the controls, her back to Freya. She moved silently, mechanically, without the life and language of movement Freya had learned to love over the last months.

As Freya’s paw touched Kiira’s bare shoulder then the small, submissive, lapine locked her into a grip and pinned her down against the console. Kiira’s other hand continued to work the controls with Freya’s arm bent backwards, her back twisting to keep her wrist from breaking.

“FUCK, Kiira what are you…”

When she looked up Freya saw nothing in Kiira’s eyes. The stars that usually shined for her were gone. A vacant casm of emptiness gazed aimlessly as she mechanically disabled the system.

“Sharak, help me. What do I do?” she asked, gritting her teeth through the pain in her wrist.

[There is a 98.0% chance you will survive the coming assault.]

“No, help me stop it I-”

A deep chest rattling sound rolled down from the mountains above the camp. A slow and rumbling descent. When the sound of the defense canons powering down ended the life returned to Kiira’s eyes.

“I… what?” She said quietly.

With a shout she pulled her paws to her chest, releasing Freya from the arm lock and jumping back from the console.

“What? Did I do that? What’s happening.”

Freya pulled her sore paw close to her and rubbed at it to stimulate bloodflow, wincing as she stepped towards Kiira.

“Kiira?”

“Freya I…. I just disabled the defense systems. I don’t know why. I don’t… even know how? I’ve never seen these consoles before. You have to get them back on… I… I don’t know what’s happening.”

Sharak’s voice spoke through Freya as she took Kiira’s place at the console, plugging her ribbon cable into the access port and trying to establish power to the defense systems.

“The Ghost Soldiers in The Great City succeeded in reprogramming your cyberbrain to use you as a weapon against the humans on Roth. Now that the systems are down they will launch the Destroyer from the shipyard and eradicate the resistance. It will take the destroyer 8 minutes to reach a safe orbit from which to target the base. The power cycle on the defense systems will take fifteen minutes.”

“I did what?” Kiira shouted, tears filling her starry eyes as she dropped to her knees.

“I…. I didn’t mean to.”

“I know, sweety. This isn’t your fault… Fuck! Sharak is right. There’s no point in even trying to cycle the defense grid.”

Kiira hugged her knees and wiped her eyes, “I’m scared Freya… What do we do? What would Fox do?”

Freya thought for a moment and reattached it to her rifle.

Freya extended a paw and said, “I don’t know, Kiira. Probably something fucking suicidal like last time. Come on. I need you right now.”

With a deep centering sigh Kiira took Freya’s paw and joined her as the two bolted over the grassy hills back toward the camp. The sound of plasma fire and shouting were heard easily even from a half kilometer away. They saw smoke rising in the halogen flood lights.

As they reached the peak of the final hill Freya’s HUD displayed targeting information. Over thirty different alerts, though less than half accompanied an actual Ghost. The rest, she reasoned, would soon be filled.

“Get down…” Freya commanded in a whisper and the two lay prone on the hill.

Kiira closed her eyes and buried her face in the grass. The sound of seven bolts being discharged preceded the hiss of the shells in the ground. A moment later three more. They kept coming until Kiira lost count. Each one was followed by the distant sound of confusion. Each one meant the end of a Vulp.

“Come on… we’re clear for now.”

“Did you really just… Kill all those vulps?”

“Fox killed all the time before he met us. Now, hurry. We’ve got six minutes.”

Cheers greeted the two as they came into the light of the camp. Freya ignored the noise and scanned the streets. She had killed nearly 40 Ghosts in the last 5 minutes. Her HUD identified more than sixty bodies in the street.

“Where’s Kiniro?” She asked coldly.

The small crowd opened and Freya met the General’s eyes. She recognized the look of fear. It was buried deep in a forced glare. But she could feel it radiating from the young leader.

“What’s going on Miss Storm?”

Freya took a short breath, “This is it, General. UTF took out our global defense canons. They’re launching a destroyer from the shipyard. These Ghosts are meant to keep us busy … keep us from evacuating. They’re taking Roth back, General.”

“If I know anything about the UTF they have a whole battalion waiting at our exit points by now. We’re likely trapped. If you try and run they’ll just cut you all down.”

The general’s eyes flashed with unmasked panic before years of preparation took over. She pushed the fear down. She would have time to feel it later.

“Anything else I should know, Miss Storm?”

“Yes…” Freya looked over her shoulder at Kiira who stood shaking behind them, “Uh… I can see them. The ghosts. Before they appear I can see them.”

Kiniro cast a suspicious gaze at the lapine before returning her attention to Kiira, “How long do we have…”

“At this point General? Five minutes.”

Freya pointed to a light glow in the distance beneath the haze of clouds. The light from the thrusters of the destroyer as it ascended to orbit.

“In five minutes that bird will be in targeting orbit… and likely wipe us out.”

“How did the defense systems go down, Miss Storm.”

Freya remained silent, scanning the camp for new target alerts.

“I see.” Kiniro answered.

“I need ideas, Miss Storm. You’re are the remaining expert on UTF tactics and technology.”

“John?”

Kiniro motioned towards a body some distance away.

“Fuck…”

“Grieve him when you get us out of this, Miss Storm. What can we do?”

Freya’s eyes closed as she wracked her brain for options. Immediately the sounds of chaos in the camp, the scent of burning plasma and flesh, and the cool Roth breeze faded away. Amid the distant echo of water falling she felt a presence behind her.

As she turned to face Sharak the water splashed across her paws. Cool and wet.

“Sharak… I need you.”

[You are going to ask how the Ghost Soldiers are traveling. I’m afraid I cannot tell you. More than 90% of scenarios in which you use this information end badly for you, Miss Freya.]

“End badly for me… but how do the humans fare?”

[20% chance of survival at best. But I am going to protect you, Freya.]

Freya closed the distance between them, a surge of anger shredding through her as she growled, “You’re going to kill all these people for ME?”

Sharak’s eyes glimmered in the sourceless light as a sincere look of distress took form in her face.

[You’re… mad at me.]

Freya huffed to herself as Sharak knelt in the water.

[I do not understand… I cannot understand this.]

Freya knelt down across from the entity, resting a paw on it’s cheek, “Sharak. Do you actually care how I feel about you?”

The machine looked up with pathos, [More than anything, Miss Freya. Which is why I want to get you through this… ]

Freya sighed and rested her forehead against Sharak’s. In this place her muzzle was free of pain. Healed. And she found she enjoyed the contact.

“Sharak. You saw what Kiira and I have… right? Do you want that someday?”

[Yes, Miss Freya… which is why I’m-]

“Shh. Have you processed the data from your observations of us tonight yet?”

[I am still building the tables…]

“Let me save you the trouble. We are honest with each other. We trust each other. Even to make mistakes. And we know whatever happens… we’ll do it together.”

Freya took Sharak’s hand and placed it on her abdomen, “We weren’t just… talking dirty tonight. We really did take the risk. For all I know…. Well. If you really want to earn my trust. You have to let me make my mistakes. You have to be honest with me. And we have to do this together. It can’t just be you deciding for me when and what I do.”

[I should have told you that Miss Lang was a danger to the base. Even though it would have ended badly for you.]

“Sharak… how good are you at predicting my actions?”

[60% accuracy so far.]

“Can you trust me the rest of the way?”

The machine softened in her arms and laid her head on Freya’s shoulder.

[You’re hormonal state indicates… affection for me.]

“Yes, Sharak.”

Freya’s HUD displayed a new file download marked: ORION GATE.

[This is everything you need to know… and I know what you plan to do. You have a 20% chance of surviving this. Even with my help, Freya.]

Freya sighed and held Sharak tight for a moment, “What matters is we do whatever comes next together. You understand? Now… let’s go. We have three minutes.”

The empty space faded and filled. Freya found herself eye to eye with Kiniro once more and the sounds and scent of violence once again surrounded her like a miasma.

Kiniro looked up to Freya and she recognized a look of confidence as the General saw Freya’s grin.

“Do we have a plan?”

“And it’s going to be fun… but we have to hurry. We’ll need six men, you, me, and Kiira. And a levcart. We need to get back to the city in less than three minutes.”

***

General Kiniro piloted the lev-cart herself as they splintered the doors to the former governor’s office and barreled down the long causeway that led to the Great City. Freya’s head bounced off the window and she grabbed her shattered muzzle and cursed as blood began to seep through the bandages.

“What about security, Miss Freya?”

“Ff… Sharak will disable it… Just get there, General.”

“And when we do?”

Freya lowered the window of the lev-cart, bracing herself against the door and connecting her ribbon cable to her Mark II.

“Sorry General… I really need to concentrate here. They’re not going to make it easy.”

As the lev-cart accelerated beyond design tolerance Freya focused her sight ahead of them, scanning the hallways as offices and equipment whizzed by. Three targeting alerts readied on her HUD and she steadied her rifle, switching her finger to the trigger.

The distance meter on the alerts counted down at several dozen meters per second as her attention floated among each alert. Finally they began to fill with the dark form of Ghost Soldiers in weapon ready positions. With a soft squeeze of the trigger she saw the first one’s helmet shatter and a mist of blood hang in the air where his skull had been before his body fell. The second went down just as easily. The third managed to get two rounds off before Freya could adjust her aim and send him to his grave.

“That’s just the start,” she whispered as her targeting HUD registered more than a dozen new alerts.

As they came into focus she targeted them all, one by one, the lev-cart taking heavy damage before the last one fell.

“Are we still good, General?”

“Let me take care of that… you just keep shooting, Miss Storm.”

Freya took a deep breath and ran a subroutine to steady her heart and reduce cluster responses to anxiety. She’d written this program after Captain Morrison’s death. A dry sense of calm washed over her as they broke through into the city. Kiniro opted to take the sheer decline over the rockface and Freya gripped the roof of the lev-cart to steady herself, scanning the impossible cityscape before them for alerts. More than a hundred lay between them and the final destination.

“ETA, Kiniro?”

“Well be at the destination you logged in… 30 seconds.”

“Well… good news and bad news I guess.”

Behind them the nervous murmuring of the makeshift team they had pulled from the crowds spilled over into angry demands, and prayers as the sight of the city.

“Shut up back there! This isn’t gonna be easy.”

As the lev-cart leveled out into the city streets Freya whispered Captain Morrison’s name, asking him to get her through just once more.

One hundred twelve alerts stood between them and the Orion Gate. A lucky shot from any one of them could end everything.

[Do you trust me, Miss Freya?]

Sharak’s voice sounded in her head.

“...we trust each other, right?”

[Thank you, Miss Freya.]

Freya felt her paws level the Mark II as her body climbed of it’s own accord onto the lev-cart roof. The buildings blurred past and Freya felt her stomach drop as she slid back on the roof. Her prosthetic leg rose and the hydraulics whirred as it ripped through the roof and locked her in place, the faux fur sleeve shredding as her limb cut through the metal.

Sharak continued to take control of Freya’s enhancements as she chose targets, firing a round the moment before they materialized. From the back of her own mind Freya watched as soldier after soldier materialized into the burning plasma core of her Mark II rounds. Sharak found targets faster than Freya could even acknowledge them, bleeding the ammo dry with each rapid shot. By the time the lev-cart came to a halt outside the research lab the barrel of the rifle was nearly molten. In her last action, Sharak drove the barrel into the roof of the lev-cart and jimmied Freya’s leg loose. Freya felt control return to her body and she unlocked the hyldrolic limb and climbed down.

“Forty five seconds until the destroyer is in targeting orbit…” Freya barked, “Follow me.”

“Where are we going, Freya? Is there a secondary defense system?”

“We’re going onto the fucking destroyer. By the way my rifle is fucked. Any help?”

Kiniro unlatched a knife from her belt and forced it into Freya’s chest, “All I got. Sorry. Do your best. Now hurry up.”

Freya nodded and led them back through the maze of halls in the research lab. Every few steps her prosthetic leg would lock, and drag behind her for a moment, but she kept ahead of the group leading them to the center of the lab.

“This place was crawling with UTF … where is everyone?”

“Closing in on us. They only left it undefended because they never expected us to get down here. Don’t worry. We’ll be long gone before they get here. I… hope. Ah, there it is.”

Freya crossed the threshold into a simple room with a large rectangular device in the center, and a control panel nearby. The tall, smooth, object radiated a haze like heat ripples in every direction.

“Ok… thirty seconds. Everyone gets in position in front of the Gate… when I tell you? Cross over. It’s gonna be a tight shot. If you hesitate you could materialize inside a bulkhead. Do you understand? When you get on the destroyer… kill the crew. Crash the ship. Got it?”

The men and the General shared a moment of disbelief before Freya barked at them to take positions, leading Kiira to the console.

“Kiira… I’m going with them. The gate can send anything and anyone to a specific special coordinate… relative to it’s position. Our problem is that the destroyer is ascending. The moon is spinning. And you have about fifteen seconds to calculate where it will be… get it wrong and we materialize in open space or inside the walls.”

Before Kiira could respond Freya took out her ribbon cable and connected one end to Kiira’s access port and the other to the console.

“You’re smart. You’re augmented. And I love you. When you fix the coordinate just hit the large pad and the gate will open… Got it? Ten seconds…”

“Freya I…”

“I know, Kiira. 8 Seconds. Get to work.”

Kiira swallowed back her fear and focused on the console in front of her, her cyberbrain calculating coordinates in real time, and locking the location in.

“Got it…”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Kiira answered before slamming the pad.

A blinding white light radiated from the Gate as Freya ordered the team to run through. The closer they got the less a part of this world they all felt. Sound stretched around them. Distance was infinite within a pinhead. And the instant each of them crossed the threshold the sudden change from stationary to g-force brough the bile up from their stomach. The first through the gate landed perfectly on the deck of the destroyer.

Freya had lagged behind for one last look at Kiira. When she finally stepped through the world warped into focus it did so with the deafening crunch of her prosthetic leg materializing between decks. Both the ship deck and her hydraulics reacted violently to the displacement, the metal of each warping and ripping as it burned red hot.

“Fuck… what the fuck,” She cursed as two of her team ripped her from the site of impact. The tempered steel twisting- breaking like glass and dangling from her hip.

General Kiniro watched panic tear through Freya’s face, her eyes fixing on a distant nothing. The general indicated for the team to bring Freya to her. As the ship ascended, only several thousand meters from an attack orbit, the general faced the young Vulp.

Her smooth, human, hand gripped Freya’s cheek tightly as the other brushed back the distant Vulp’s hair.

“Freya. We need one more minute from you. That’s all. One minute and you’re done. I promise. Do you hear me?”

Freya’s eyes rolled, unfixed and dilated.

Amelia leaned in closer, cheek to cheek, her sweat wetting Freya’s fur.

“Hey… Listen. Just one more minute okay. Then you’re done. You can go to Captain Morrison then. Okay? He’ll be waiting. But not if you don’t finish this.”

Freya’s gaze whipped back into focus. Her eyes were blearly but fixed on the General.

“Sorry,” she apologized, “Let’s go… bridge controls are coded to Vulp DNA. Any vulp. I hit the panel. The rest of you? Don’t stop shooting until everyone’s dead.”

The promise of blood rallied the unit who dragged Freya to the entrance to the bridge.

“Once we get in you’ll need me to stop the ascent so… don’t leave me out here, okay?”

Amelia answered by grabbing Freya’s paw and slapping it agains the access panel. In a brief glimpse of eye contact, they shared a moment of presence. The moment was broken by the hydraulic whir of the bridge door opening and the chorus of plasma bolts ripping through vulpine flesh that followed. General Kiniro bore Freya’s weight as they listened for the dull thud of each body on the bridge. Freya counted to herself, running down every bridge rank the UTF would deem necessary even for a skeleton crew. One by one they all fell. From Captain to Comms. From Weapons to Navigator. And of course a glory thirsty general who would be watching it all happen and claiming command in the news reels.

“Not this time,” She muttered as she heard the final body fall under a crossfire of plasma.

She nodded to Amelia, “Now.”

The bridge was awash in the scent of burnt flesh, singed fur, and the now familiar scent of blood. In the end eight bodies litered the stations. Two of them Freya recognized from her old ship. As Amelia helped her limp toward the navigation station she shoved aside the still warm flesh of a former crewmate.

“You made your choice, Jordan.”

Amelia cut in, “Can you bring this thing down?”

“Panel is locked… let me jus-”

She felt the pain before she heard the shot. Searing heat radiating from the center of her paw, followed by pressure. She had barely a moment to understand what would come next. She’d caused it herself in more than a hundred Vulps on the way to this moment. The plasma bolt which had ripped through her paw causing explosive expansion as it boiled the blood in her veins.

A dozen shots fired back at the captain’s chair. This time they were sure he was dead.

Amelia cursed, slipping her shirt over her shoulders and wrapping Freya’s left arm where her paw had once been. As she tied it off she ordered her team to double tap every corpse on the bridge.

Freya was vaugely aware of Amelia fawning over her wound. The drop in blood pressure and the ice cold wave washing over her registered in her HUD. A self diagnostic advised she was in shock.

With a cold detachment she raised her other paw to the navigation panel and unlocked the ship’s controls. After a couple of swift strokes on the touchpad she sighed.

Amelia was still trying to dress the stump where her paw had been, applying pressure.

“Don’t worry, Amelia… I won’t bleed out before this is over.”

“Let me worry about that. You just need to land this thing before-”

Freya yanked her arm back from Amelia’s grasp, pressing it against her stomach as blood spilled over her fur and down her thighs.

“Land? No. Amelia… there’s sixty fucking Vulps still on this ship. By now they’ll all be on their way here to retake the bridge. We don’t have the fucking ammo to keep this bridge.”

“We just have to keep it long enough to-”

Freya shook her head.

“This ship takes fifteen minutes to land. We’ll lose the bridge in less than five. We still have ten until the defense canons are back online. But…”

Amelia nodded as she knew what was coming next.

“...It only takes 2 minutes to crash.”

There was only a moment’s hesitation before Amelia ordered it. With a few swift motions of Freya’s remaining paw it was done.

“I ejected the fuel mix containment chambers. We’re going down.”

The effect was felt instantly by everyone on the ship. A sudden drop in velocity followed by a stomach twisting downward lurch.

Freya fell from the navigation station and Amelia knelt by her side.

“I promised you… one minute was all we needed from you.”

With the cool steel of the deck against her cheek and the hot rush of blood running down her body Freya fell from focus.

“And now I can see my Captain again?”

Amelia stroked her head, “That’s right, soldier. You did good.”

Freya closed her eyes and waited as the ship began to freefall.

Amelia knelt in prayer by her side. As did the rest of the humans. A working example of faith versus physics.

If the Vulps who weren’t treading over each other for the escape pods did try to retake the bridge there would be nothing they could do. The job was done. Nothing would get this ship back in the sky.

The light went dim around her as Freya remembered the fall from the roof so long ago. The fall that Sharak had rewritten as freedom for her. She remembered that feeling of soaring above the city. Of a new future. She thought of Captain Morrison and felt that same rush of relief once again. In slow motion freefall she made her peace with her life.

As Roth grew closer she opened the old channel she’d had with Captain Morrison when he died. The one Kiira could still hear but not answer.

“I’m coming to see you, Foxyboy. I’m sorry I took so long. Kiira needed me. She’s safe now.”

As it all went dark her HUD powdered down. She became untethered to life. And as impact loomed Sharak whispered a word of thanks. That she finally understood Freya’s heart. And with a smile on her lips Freya slipped away.