41. Chosen Ground

Academy Hill, Vidako

Imperium Stellarum
November 2, 2847

Arc’s tech crew was waiting for him back at the hangar.

Travelling by VTOL above the jungle canopy was, of course, substantially quicker than hoofing it through the undergrowth in a damaged mech. Natalie Ramírez and the others already had the broken limb of academy Tyro unit seventeen hoisted up and bracketed in place, and when Arc climbed down out of his open cockpit, he could see they were in the process of disassembling it.

“How much of it can you save?” he asked, walking over to where Natalie watched Tremblay and Moore pry off a section of ceramic armor deformed from the horn of the male cornibus.

“Probably the lower arm and hand,” she said, glancing away from their work to look him over. “The entire shoulder assembly is going to have to be replaced, both on the torso and the arm itself. And we’re going to have to test how much of the support structure has been deformed by what you put her through. Don’t expect to be taking her out of the barn for at least a week, Sandhurst. Maybe two.”

“I feel like I need that long just to sleep,” Arc admitted. “And I’m not scheduled for any more patrols before the winter break, anyway.”

“Good. So get out of our hair, then,” Ramírez said, making a shooing motion with her hands. “And go take a shower. You stink like a week in the jungle.”

“Just about. Later, Ramírez,” Arc said, and gave a wave as he turned to leave the hangar. To his surprise, Vijay Iyer and Christina Fortin caught him on the way back out onto the tarmac, so that all three of them walked to the gates together.

“Sandhurst,” Iyer said, reaching over to place a hand on Arc’s back. “I know you’re tired, and you’ve got friends waiting for you. Don’t worry, I won’t hold you up. I just wanted to say this: whatever else happened out there, you just came through your first combat mission in one piece. You did good. Don’t forget that.”

Arc almost stumbled at the praise. “I’m not certain it quite feels real, yet,” he admitted.

“Pretty soon it’ll be just another day,” Christina said. “Anyway. I know I can rely on you to watch my back, now, and I’ll watch yours.” She didn’t smile, and he didn’t feel like the distance between them had closed at all, but there was a level of respect in her words that hadn’t been there on the day they’d left the academy together.

“I will,” he promised.

Iyer clapped him on the back once more, then dropped his hand, and the three of them were waved through the gate together, to where Arc saw Pika and Vee waiting. To his surprise, neither Cassie nor Rain were present.

“He lives!” Pika declared, and scooped Arc up in his arms, actually lifting his feet off the ground. Arc found himself crushed to his roommate’s chest, and his breath forced out of his lungs. “We heard you had some excitement out there!” Iyer and Fortin continued on to the dorms, though Vijay gave a casual wave to the younger cadets as he left.

“Urk,” Arc said, and then Pika set him down and he could breathe again. “I guess everyone knows?”

“Ramírez told us all about it!” Vee shouted, and bounced up to throw her arms around him next. “She said you got your mech’s arm ripped off, but you killed a spiked terror!” With his friend hugging him, Arc got a mouthful of that strange, citrus-y scent which seemed to be the natural body odor of Toreans.

“Where’s Cassie and Rain?” he asked, giving Vee a quick squeeze and then setting her down to take a step backward. Arc couldn’t imagine that anyone actually wanted to smell him after days in a cockpit with no shower.

“They should be right behind us,” Pika said. “There she is.” He raised his arm and pointed back along the paved path which led out of the campus proper to the gate into the south part of Academy Hill, where all the hangars were.

Arc followed the line of his finger and saw Cassie and Rain talking to one of the older Torean students, with a vibrant red crest of feathers. She’d planted herself directly in the path, forcing his friends to stop and speak to her. He frowned. Something about the way the older cadet held herself didn’t seem right.

“Cadet Sandhurst.”

Arc spun, to see two older cadets approaching – not along the path, but out from beneath the branches of one of the genetically engineered live oaks which shaded the main part of campus from Vidako’s twin suns. One of the two, he didn’t recognize as more than a half-familiar face: an Alu’kan a couple of years older, and nearly as big as Pika, but without the broad grin. The other, however, Arc knew at once, with a sick, sinking sensation in his gut.

Fletcher Radecki was dressed in his gray academy tunic, rather than for working in the infirmary, and he wore his cap. Something about the way he held his head gave the impression that he was looking down his nose at Arc, though the older man wasn’t actually any taller.

“Sir.” Arc turned to face Radecki directly, and straightened his back despite the aches he was nursing from so many hours in the cockpit.

Your cortisol just spiked, Iceni told him. But I’m not certain I understand why.

Because I know enough to recognize an ambush when I see one, Arc told the AI. Sometimes it was easy to forget that, for all the knowledge Iceni had access to, she’d only been in existence for a few weeks. Do you remember what I told Cal Madine? There’s a reason that setting a trap for your enemy has never gone out of fashion. It works. He pins Cassie out of position and comes at me from the flank…

At least he had Pika and Vee to back him up. Better, Arc thought, if Iyer hadn’t already walked away. But of course, Radecki must have been watching from under the trees and waiting for just the right moment.

“You other cadets are dismissed,” Fletcher Radecki said. “On your way.”

Arc could see, in his peripheral vision, Pika and Vee exchanging glances. Rather than leave, Pika stepped right up to stand at Arc’s shoulder, and somehow seemed to become even larger than normal. The move set himself up facing off directly with the Alu’kan who’d accompanied Radecki. “Whatever you have to say to Sandhurst, you can say in front of us, sir,” Pika rumbled.

“Is that insubordination, cadet?” Radecki asked, with narrowed eyes.

“No, sir,” Vee said. “We’re not currently assigned to any squad you’re leading, sir, nor are you training us. We’re between classes and off duty, and we have just as much a right to be on campus as you do.”

There was a twitch in the man’s face, and Arc caught a glimpse of Cassie and Rain over his shoulder. One of them must have spotted what was happening, because he saw the two of them dash around the red-crested girl who’d gotten in their path. They were jogging over, now, and he only had to delay a little while until his reinforcements arrived. But what he didn’t understand was exactly what the purpose of this whole maneuver was. Unlike the departed Van Camp, Radecki didn’t strike him as the time to simply beat up those who annoyed him.

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“Fine,” Radecki grumbled. “I thought I might save you a bit of public shame, Sandhurst, but it’s clear to me you don’t understand when you’re being offered a courtesy. No surprise, I suppose. You’re a boy from a backwater planet who doesn’t know his place. A climber. What I have a hard time understanding is why anyone ever let you get close enough to our princess to dirty her with your hands.”

Arc blinked, momentarily taken aback. Until now, Radecki had hardly said a word to him. He didn’t trust the man – and he’d had a feeling the older cadet was circling around Cassie for weeks now, but he’d never done anything more than give Arc a cold shoulder, or ignore his presence to the point of being rude.

“I’m not certain how my relationship with Cassie is any of your business, sir,” Arc said. “We aren’t breaking any regulations.” He was playing for time, as much as anything else. Whatever was going on here, he was certain that Cassie would be better equipped to deal with it than he was. But he couldn’t keep a certain amount of annoyance out of his voice.