5

- Charlotte -

“That is nice.”

Charlotte felt giddy. It was a brand new armored dropship, just arrived from Earth. The slick titanium hull gleamed in the light inside the hangar bay on the Friendship, while at the same time bristling with guns and spears and hardpoints and a jagged spine that gave it a reptilian appearance. That was no coincidence; the ship was partly modeled on crocodiles, in order to make it look threatening to alien enemies. It was designed to fly into war zones, engage enemy ground forces and then deliver a full squad of soldiers to battle. Or warriors, as in this case. And now it was Charlotte's.

Harper smiled. “Sure is. I don't think they have anything like it. We thought it would be a good idea to show them the best we have this first time. To help convince them about Earth pilots and hardware.”

“Thanks,” Charlotte stammered and ran her gloved hand over the hull. It was highly polished and she could hardly feel any friction. “This is going to be extremely fast. Those Prec will never know what hit them.”

“That's the idea. Isn't that what they call 'shock and awe'? Vrax'ton thinks it will work fine. Did you know those Prec are moving towards Earth, too? We don't want them anywhere near our solar system. The sooner we can neutralize the threat, the better. We'll work with Acerex. It's going to be a formal alliance, probably. And you will be the first part of it.”

Charlotte nodded, still taking in the ferocious little warship. Six lasers, two chainguns and a pod that had to hold at least fifty rockets. She'd never piloted anything that well armed, and she couldn't wait to get behind the controls. “Sounds great.”

Harper shrugged. “Well, it was your idea. Charlotte, are you still sure you'll want to? You know that you don't have anything to prove to the Acerex, right? Or to anyone else? None of us girls from Gideo Station need to prove shit. You can still get out of this. Everyone will understand.”

Charlotte heard the pained tone and glanced at her friend. “You're worried this will be like when Lily took on that mission to the Ytter tribe and then almost died on the Fire Planet. I know you still feel that was your fault. First of all, it wasn't. Lily is a big girl, she makes her own decisions. And I do, too. This is the coolest thing that's happened in my life, okay? Harper, I really want this! No matter what happens.”

Harper nodded slowly. “All right. But please cut it short and come back if you have the slightest feeling that something is wrong. Or if those Prec are tougher than we think. Or if the squad are anything less than perfectly nice to you. Or if-”

Charlotte went over and hugged her friend. “Don't worry, Harper. I'll be sure to be as safe as possible. Those Acerex pilots who crash do that because they're not that good. And I'm not just good, I'm a damn phenomenon, alright? I'll be fine.”

Harper sniffled and squeezed her harder. “I know you're good, that's not it. It's just that ... oh, never mind. Shit, I'm acting like I'm your mother. Hey, go and kick some alien invader ass, girl.”

Charlotte chuckled. “Don't worry. You're something much better than my mother ever was: you're a good friend. You know, part of being a good pilot is not taking unnecessary risks. I like to be alive, same as you. But I also like to make a difference flying. Heck, this ship can handle anything.”

Harper wiped a tear off her cheek and smiled. “And you absolutely will make a difference. You can't help it. Hey, ever hear more from that guy you met?”

Charlotte felt a little sting in her heart. She'd heard nothing from Cori'ax since their wonderful night together. She looked away. “Nope, radio silence. Why?”

“Just curious. I guess I want all my friends to find their own warriors. Isn't that a stereotype, when all the newlyweds want everyone else to get married, too? But it's fine if you're not his Mahan. Probably makes everything easier for everyone. Plenty of warriors in the sea.”

- - -

It was a glorious ship. It pinned her hard to the seat when it accelerated, it changed course as fast and easily as a rabbit and it took her to the moon Ett faster than she'd have thought. She test fired the various weapons against an asteroid to get a feel for them, and she felt more powerful than she'd ever thought possible. She felt like she could take on the whole Prec army on her own.

The moon itself was very large, much larger than Earth's own Moon. It was rocky and deserted, but it was a perfect point to use as a springboard for alien species that wanted to invade the Acerex home planet. The Acerex kept an eye on it for exactly that to happen, which it did once every few years, and then they attacked the invaders before they could launch the invasion.

Charlotte had seen pictures of the Prec. They were shapeless blobs of yellowish flesh with teeth and tentacles and spikes all over them, and they reminded her a little of sea urchins. If sea urchins were sentient, eight feet in diameter and flew ramshackle spaceships just as ugly as they were.

The Prec controlled most of the surface, and the Acerex were struggling to keep them from taking over the whole moon. If they did, they could launch their invasion pretty easily. There had turned out to be many more of them than the Acerex had suspected, and the Prec were also invading more planets nearby.

Charlotte received her landing instructions and flew to the area where Squad Nine had their base. It was a deep crater that could serve as a natural fortress against the enemy. There were many other squads there, too, each with fifteen warriors plus their pilots.

She found the landing pad with the Acerex number 9 on it and set the dropship down with its side to the small tents that littered the bottom of the crater. She wanted them to see the huge Earth markings on its side.

The other craft she could see nearby were all of Acerex manufacture, which meant that they were functional, but not elegant or pretty. They also had no weapons mounted, and no armor – the Acerex believed in only killing enemies with their swords.

Charlotte smiled. Her heavily armed dropship would be a bad surprise for the Prec.

She got out and a young warrior came towards her, tattooed and extremely muscular.

He looked her up and down and frowned. “Pilot Taylor?”

Charlotte smoothed down her hair after hours wearing a helmet. One of these days she should get a shorter haircut. “That's right, warrior. Who might you be?”

“I'm Xeri'un. Hm. We expected ... someone else.”

“Uh-huh. Didn't you expect pilot Taylor?”

“We did. But we assumed ...”

“That the pilot would be a man?”

The man's eyes were very blue. “Yes.”

“It appears your assumption was wrong, Warrior Xeri'un,” Charlotte said gave him a mild smile.

The Acerex had never had women among their warriors, because females were so scarce among them that they protected them very carefully. It wasn't sexism, it was just a practical consideration that made them seem pretty sympathetic to Charlotte. It showed that they cared greatly about their women. But now they had to adjust to having a girl in their squad.

The warrior got a hold of himself and nodded curtly. “So it does. Very well, pilot. The squad leader is waiting to greet you.”

They walked towards a cluster of tents on the dirty sand. The moon was large enough to have both decent gravity and breathable air, even if it was a little thinner than the air on Earth.

There was a little stake in the ground topped with the squad's symbol, a stylized Acerex number 9, looking a little like a beer bottle. The tents were brown and small, but Charlotte knew that they were surprisingly comfortable, with electricity and even running water in each one.

Xeri'un opened the flap to the largest tent and held it up so Charlotte could enter.

Inside there was a conference table made of roughly hewn wood. Above it hovered a large holographic map of the moon they were on, with red and green dots to show their own and the enemy's position in real time. Most of the moon was red, Charlotte noticed.

Three warriors sat around the table, while a fourth was standing up and had his back to the tent's opening.

Xeri'un cleared his voice. “Warriors, pilot Taylor is here.”

Some of them looked in her direction, then did a double take. She walked further into the tent and smiled.

“Hey, guys,” she said in Acerex.

No one replied. But the large figure of the squad leader stiffened, then turned around slowly and fixed his eyes on Charlotte.

She had never seen an Acerex warrior's jaw drop. They were always so composed and calm. But this one came pretty close to looking astounded.

Charlotte was just about able to keep her own jaw from dropping. She had gotten over her first shock while he had his back turned. She wasn't sure how she felt about it, but she couldn't really storm out, either.

She smiled sweetly. “Hi, Cori'ax.”