Planet Wrecker

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Marten, Nadia and Omi sat in a control room in the third dome. Dead cyborgs lay scattered on the floor. A window showed the asteroid’s bleak surface of crater-plain and the star-field above. The room held breathable air.

With a hiss, Marten unsealed his helmet, rotated it off the locks and lifted it from his head. The room reeked of burnt electronics. But Marten didn’t care. He scratched his nose and rubbed tired eyes.

Nadia and Omi acted similarly. Nadia had dark circles around her eyes. A cut on Omi’s forehead dripped blood into one of his brows.

“We did it,” Omi whispered. “We took our asteroid.”

“Maybe,” Marten said. “We haven’t checked everywhere. There may be some cyborgs hiding.”

Omi shook his head. “They attacked when it might have been better for them to wait for us. I think they’ve thrown every cyborg into the fray.”

Nadia stood up, moved near and half-collapsed into Marten’s arms. He kissed her salty lips as she wept silently.

“I thought I was going to die,” she whispered.

“We all did,” said Marten. He hugged her. It was difficult with her armored vacc-suit. Their pieces clanged against each other. He was overjoyed she was alive. If she’d died…what would have been the point of all this?

“It’s time,” a tinny voice crackled from each of their helmet’s headphones.

Marten lifted a hand-unit. “What was that?” he asked.

“The fusion core is online,” said Osadar.

“What about the damaged coils?” Marten asked.

“There are some secondary banks,” said Osadar. “I’ve already rerouted.”

“You should send a message to the Highborn,” Nadia said. “Otherwise, they might bombard the asteroid if we move it without first announcing it.”

“I don’t agree,” said Marten. “By moving the asteroid, we show we won. And I don’t like the idea about broadcasting our victory.”

“Why not?” asked Omi.

“Maybe the cyborgs will send torpedoes from the other asteroids,” Marten said.

“They’ll more likely do that once we’re moving,” Omi said.

“But at least the asteroid will be moving by then,” said Marten. “That’s the point.”

“What do we do after that?” asked Omi. “Ride the asteroid to its new heading?”

“You know the answer,” Marten said. “Once our asteroid is safely headed to a new destination, we climb into the patrol boats and storm another asteroid.”

“We don’t have enough space marines left for that,” Omi said. “Look how many we lost capturing this one.”

“We’ll have to coordinate with others,” Marten said.

“Has anyone else won?” asked Omi.

“If we did it, Highborn should have been able to,” Marten said.

“We tackled a small asteroid,” Nadia said. “They hit the big ones.”

“It is time,” Osadar radioed.

Desperately wanting nothing more than to sleep, Marten stood up just the same. Then he approached the asteroid’s primary controls. Mankind’s future rested on their ability to decipher cyborg routing.