33. Hestia Part I Arrival

The prior eveninghad felt almost normal. They'd watched a movie, eaten dinner, and then gone to bed like their universe wasn't in constant flux or about to implode. Lupo had been relieved when he'd heard Auren pass off into sleep and equally relieved when he woke the following day—thankfully still himself. At least for now.

They were prepping themselves for what came next: Hestia.

"Weapons armed," Auren updated from beside him on the bridge.

"Sensors live," Ophion followed.

"Totally just sitting here watching you guys work," Fengári thirded as he cracked open a beverage.

They were to fall out of hyper at any moment.

"Approaching Hestia," the ship's computer announced. "Five… four… three… two… one. Arrived."

Lupo's stomach lurched, as it always did when they tumbled out of hyperspace.

"Multiple contacts," Ophion alerted them immediately. "Incoming missiles."

"Fuck," Lupo muttered, throttling up the ship and sending them arcing off in a broad curve. He hoped to outpace the missiles as he hurried toward the planet.

"You might want to put on a flight suit, Fengári, just in case we get a hull breach. There are spares near the airlock," Lupo offered, trying not to sound too panicked.

"Oh, right. Uh… okay," Fengári said nervously. He put down his drink, which promptly spilled, and hurried off to get a flight suit.

Auren had finally picked off one of the rapidly approaching missiles with the Fortunato's point-defense cannons. They were small and agile, and he struggled to aim at them. Lupo tracked the rest of the swarm uneasily on his display.

"The enemy has established a ring of orbital defense satellites," Ophion said, passing his holo-display off to the rest of the bridge and sharing a readout of the fortifications that popped up in red.

"The bastard got to work quick, didn't he?" Auren said.

"Amazing what you can accomplish with an army of tireless synthetic slaves doing your bidding," Lupo murmured. "Can we punch through their defensive line and land on the surface? Scan for power signatures and get me a target on the surface to land near."

"Approach at this vector," Ophion instructed. "May I take over the firing controls?"

"Auren?" Lupo glanced at him.

"Yeah, sure. Here." Auren pushed the firing holo over to Ophion, who immediately set to it.

Lupo watched as the alien being's hands flew over the command screen. One by one the missiles blipped out of existence. He then turned the guns on the satellites far in front of them and unleashed hell on them, too. Detonations exploded across their field of view as he shot down a second swarm of missiles and then the last of the satellites within range.

"I have eliminated the satellite defenses in this region," Ophion declared solemnly.

"I should say you have indeed," Lupo agreed, stunned by the alien's penchant for destruction.

They plunged into Hestia's cold atmosphere.

Below, a vast, ice-covered wasteland stretched out. The world glowed a dim silver-white in the light of the system's nearly dead star. Only a faint, ghastly veil of photons managed to reach it. As far as Lupo could see, streaks of pinkish sediment stained vast swaths of the barrens, giving the world a horrid, rotten appearance.

"Hey, would you look at that? We're still alive!" Fengári quipped. His voice was distorted through the space suit he'd acquired.

For now, Lupo thought.

"Why this world?" Auren asked. "Why Hestia?"

"No idea. I've never heard of the place," Lupo replied.

"Me either, bruv. Looks like a right shithole, though, doesn't it," Fengári said. He'd draped himself across the back of Auren's chair.

"Bartie never does anything by accident," Lupo said. "Everyone be on the lookout for anything that looks manmade."

"This Bartie guy sounds like a real prick," Fengári mused. But they were all scanning the horizon too nervously to laugh.

They flew on in silence for a few minutes, the anxiety palpable.

What is he doing out here…Lupo wondered uneasily.

Bartie had a taste for luxury. For power. And an ice cube floating miserably in some far-flung corner of the galaxy was not the setting he imagined him most at home in. But Bartie was a coward. He'd always been a coward. And maybe this was his best attempt at waiting out the Keth invasion. Perhaps he hadn't heard the news that the war had turned around. It was the only thing that made any sense. Why else would the man have gone to such great lengths to do everything he'd done to get… here?

"Power signature detected," Ophion said, interrupting him from his thoughts.

"What in the stars?" Auren cried. Lupo glanced at him, then followed his gaze out the viewscreen.

The Fortunato had just skimmed over the top of a range of glacial mountains that reached up many miles into the atmosphere. As they peaked and began to plunge down the other side, the power signature—and Bartie's presence on-world—finally came into view.

Minotaur IIhad landed. The mammoth asteroid sat on the landscape like a monumental pebble. Its bay doors had been repaired and were wide open. The ship's camera zoomed in, and Lupo could make out dozens of unclothed synthetics shuttling objects to and fro from within.

But that wasn't the sight that gripped him. No, the sight that gripped him was that of the half-erected acropolis. It glinted in what passed for light on Hestia. It was enormous. Monumental. The neo-classical architecture reminded Lupo of the ancient ruins back home on Terra, even from this great distance.

"What in the void is that?" Fengári whistled.

If Minotaur II, or the acropolis, had any means of defending themselves against the Fortunato, they had decided against using them. The lack of confrontation was unnerving as Lupo set their ship down a few kilometers away. They all watched on uneasily as the horde of synthetic prisoners labored. Many were quarrying stones from a nearby hillside. They toiled, chiseling vast blocks of marble-like sediment with Bronze Age tools. Each was nude and haggard. There were hundreds of them. More still were streaming in and out of Minotaur II, carrying crates of material into the acropolis and out of sight. None of the synths appeared to notice their intrusion.

"Is someone going to tell me what's going on?" Fengári asked.

But the three who had encountered Bartie before only stared in joint disarray at the sight before them.

"I guess we have no choice but to suit up and go inside," Auren said after a time. "And no, Fengári, nobody has any fucking clue what this shit is. This guy is a total smear. Wait until you see his fucking kimono."

Lupo thought Auren sounded calmer than he might have expected. But he noted that he rubbed his neck nervously as he spoke, and his jaw was clenched tight.

"Auren, let me disable your communication array so he can't backdoor you again," Lupo said, relieved to find this aspect of his software still somewhat comprehensible.

"Thanks," Auren said mutely.

"Let us prepare for glorious battle," Ophion boomed, making his way off to the fab mod he'd turned into a makeshift armory.

"Nobody fires a shot until I speak with Bartie. Eyes peeled. Guns close. But remember, those synths out there are all people—people like us. They've had their free will taken away. We need to find a way to set them free," Lupo said.

He got up from the command chair and looked from one brother to the other.

"This doesn't have to be your fight. You can stay on the ship if you want," Lupo implored.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Auren scoffed. "He cut my head off. I want to see him get his."

"What he said," Fengári agreed.

"Alright, well, stay close. And thank you. This is something I needed to do to get my life back."

"Trust me, I understand," Auren said. He pecked Lupo on the cheek, and Fengári gave him a pat on the back.

"Cheer up, big guy, what's the worst that could happen?" Fengári grinned.

But if Lupo had known the answer to that question then, he would have never landed on Hestia in the first place.