Fated Blades (Kinsmen)

“The Vandal commodore sent out a message on the open channel, so every vessel in the system heard it. They wanted the mining ship. Just that ship. He wouldn’t say why. ‘Just give us the ship filled with kids, and we’ll let you pass.’ We didn’t know about Opus then, but it didn’t smell right.”

Ramona’s eyes were huge. He looked into them and kept talking.

“Kurt Summers, the man who headed our outfit, was the convoy leader. He knew the Vandals by reputation, which was why we were told to steer clear of the SFR. I had him on one screen and the Vandal commodore on the other. Kurt sent out a battle plan over the secure channel, and then he told the Vandal commodore that they wouldn’t be giving up the ship. He must’ve thought the SFR wouldn’t take a chance on attacking a multisystem fleet. The commodore said, ‘In that case, do not blame me for being impolite.’ I saw Kurt’s face drop, and then his destroyer went supernova. The screen turned white.”

“What happened next?” she asked softly.

“Hell.”

He wanted to leave it there, but a bargain was a bargain.

“They tore us to pieces. We were outnumbered, outgunned, and outcrewed. They launched missile barrages, one after another. The first salvo ripped through the convoy like it was plastipaper. Vessels broke to pieces. Drives exploded. Once they crippled us, they closed in and shredded what was left at close range with particle beams. Pass after pass, even after ships went dark.”

It was playing out in his head again—the blinding explosions of missiles, the debris hurtling past at catastrophic speed, the SOS calls from the smaller barges as they frantically tried to flee only to be chased down, the screaming over the open channel . . .

“How did you survive?”

“I quit fighting.” And there it was. He’d said it. “After the third missile salvo, I spun us around, fired a short burst from the engine, and killed it. We suited up, and I vented the ship. We drifted off through the debris field, our drives seemingly offline, trailing air.”

“You played dead?”

He nodded.

“How long?”

“Four hours. Until the Vandals left the system.”

She clenched her fists. “They couldn’t have gotten away with it.”

“They did. Oh, there was a massive stink. Speeches were made. The SFR was slapped with sanctions and paid some reparations. But in the end, none of the four planets involved in the merchant fleet wanted to pick a fight with militant maniacs armed to the teeth. The SFR makes war. That’s what they do. They train for it. They are prepared. The biggest fight Raleigh III gets involved in concerns whose name will be listed first on the latest research paper.”

“That’s unbelievable.” Outrage sparked in her eyes.

“That’s what happened. We thought we were badasses. And then the Vandals came through and showed us that we weren’t shit. We never had a chance. It was the first time in my life I felt helpless in a fight. Everyone I knew was dead. I came home. I couldn’t protect the merchant fleet or people who fought side by side with me, but my family needed me, so I became the man they required. And now you know.”

“I envied you when you left. I was fifteen, and I so wanted to trade places with you. I’m kind of glad I didn’t.”

He looked up at the night sky. “We are sheltered here on Rada. We live in our cozy homes, grow dahlias to impress our neighbors, and have our small feuds. This planet has never known a full-scale invasion by a superior military fleet. Most of us have never known war. I have seen firsthand what an orbital kinetic bombardment does to a city. The moment that salvager showed up in my office with the seco research data banks, everything else in my life no longer mattered. I knew then that I had to develop that tech and I had to control it, because if someone like SFR gets their hands on seco generators, they will become invincible. They will massacre system after system until they drench the sector in blood. As long as I breathe, neither the Vandals nor their parent asshole republic will ever touch it.”

She stared at him in silence, her eyes wide.

“Your turn,” he prompted. “Tell me why I have no room to talk about betrayal.”

Her face shut down. “It’s ancient history. It’s not important.”

“I want to know.”

“Matias . . .”

“We had a deal. Pay up.”

“Don’t make me tell you.” She almost begged.

“Ramona, you promised.”

She shut her eyes for a second, then opened them. “Have you ever wondered why two secare families ended up on the same planet in the same province?”

“Coincidence? Rada is beautiful.” To battle-hardened secare, it must’ve seemed like heaven.

She took a deep breath. “When the secare unit was made, the Sabetera Geniocracy offered them the Pact. Once the war was over, each secare would get one million credits and one hundred acres on the Sabetera world of their choice. After the end of the Second Outer Rim War, the Sabetera Geniocracy decided that secare were too dangerous to be freed. They went back on their word. They tried to kill the secare, but the unit had advance warning and they scattered.”