(Photo by Pixabay)

“I hate fighting,” Chester grumbled.

He knew how to fight, of course. No one survived so many years of war without learning how, but that didn’t mean he was ever comfortable with it.

“Well, you probably have the best aim out of us all,” Jezah said, pushing the rifle into Chester’s grasp.

“I doubt that,” Chester said while examining the rifle.

He didn’t like how it already felt familiar to him. After the war was over, he tried to avoid such things. He did make the occasional trip to a firing range, though, since that was the only way he could ease the worry in the back of his mind about the possibility of getting caught in another war.

The weapon was crude but efficient, designed to be easily dismantled and concealed during transit. It was how Jezah and the other saboteurs brought most their gear across the solar system.

“Each clip only holds three shots,” she explained while demonstrating how to operate the weapon. “After the third shot, the clip will auto-eject.”

“That’s a terrible idea,” Chester told her. “It could damage the clip. The noise might give away your position. You could slip on the discarded clips. They–

“I didn’t make them,” Jezah cut him off. “Just letting you know what to expect.”

Chester let it slide but made a mental note to see if he could disable that particular feature later on.

“The last time I went through lunar security,” Jezah went on, “they had us all scanned as we left the ship. They didn’t care if we had luggage with us or not. Hopefully that will be the same so we can have our weapons handy.”

“We should anticipate them having some defensive barricades built up,” Lyon, one of the security drones, said. “It’s standard procedure to have at least one defensive line whenever we’re anticipating a hostile force.”

“That’s where we’ll focus our explosives,” Chester said. “Once the barricades are down we can run for it, using the guns for suppression.”

“We’ll travel in three groups of six,” Jezah said. “There’s enough body armor for the front three people in each group, plus you, Chester. Those three will need to stay in front of the group, or at least be on whatever side is taking more fire.”

It would be up to Chester to keep each group organized and moving since he was the one controlling them. They’d all have basic instructions, of course, and could probably function well enough as it was, but he didn’t want to lose anyone because he’d been distracted or forgot something.

“How strong is the lunar security?” Chester asked.

“Last I heard,” Lyon said, “the space port has around fifty people. The general security for the region around the port has only a couple hundred, but I doubt they’d pull them for this. The moon isn’t as submissive as the rest of the core worlds and the Solar King keeps those reports quiet. If they moved too many forces into the port, there’d be trouble in the colony.”

“We’ve got people on the moon,” Jezah said, “and once we land we can contact them over the short range comms. They’re encrypted so at most security will know we’ve sent a transmission.”

“How much help can your people give us?” Chester asked. “I don’t want to turn the moon into a war zone.”

“They’re not combatants,” Jezah assured him. “If we can get away from the port, they can hide us and begin working on a way to get us back off the moon and someplace else.”

“Where?” Chester asked, not liking the open ended aspect of that possibility.

“Someplace where the Solar, uh,” Jezah corrected herself, “where Dawnstar isn’t looking for us.”

“Right,” Chester nodded. “And how likely will that be the fringe?”

“What’s wrong with the fringe?”

“I was the Solar King’s head necrologist, what do you think will happen to me out there?”

“You’ll be put to work,” Jezah stated.

“And will I be free to move about? Will my life be threatened if I don’t do what they say? Will I be forced to use my skills against their enemies?”

“Is that any different than how the Solar King treated you?”

Chester began to reply and then stopped.

“At least I was comfortable and safe, relatively speaking,” he finally said.

“If that’s all it’s going to take for you to work for the fringe, then I’m sure they can accommodate you.”

Chester disliked how easily bought he felt, but in the end safety was safety. He knew he couldn’t get that from Dawnstar so where else could he turn to if not the fringe?

“Let’s assume for a moment that I’m not interested in working as a necrologist anymore,” Chester said. “In fact, with all records of me now deleted, I could quite easily just slip into anonymity.”

“Do you really want to be a nobody with this war about to begin?” Jezah asked.

“I certainly don’t want to be anyone important,” Chester replied. “I remember how quickly they all got killed the last time.”

Jezah shook her head.

“We can protect you,” she insisted.

“Can you though? I recall, oh what was his name, Diego something?”

“Diego Culm,” Jezah supplied. “Head magistrate of the fringe colonies.”

“Him, yes, well I remember him telling the Solar King that they didn’t support you and your group of radicals.”

“We just have different opinions on how to reach the same goal.”

“Well I don’t think they’ll be too keen to be seen taking me in after everything you’ve done in the core. They’ve been trying to avoid conflict and now you’ve gone and blown up half the space ports in the core.”

Jezah didn’t have anything to say to that.

“For now,” Chester said and made sure he encoded his words into a command so Jezah couldn’t ignore or disobey him so easily, “no one can tell anyone else who I am. No one can reveal the fact that I’ve taken control of you all. Your cover was blown so you were all trying to get off world. The security officers with us have joined your cause and helped you get this far. H’lay and I were at the port when the attack happened and just ended up with your group. We only learned of your involvement during this transit to the moon and have agreed to help you for now since we’d likely get lumped in with you all anyway if we’re caught.”

Jezah’s eyes narrowed but Chester kept an eye on their connection to ensure she didn’t break free from this instruction. It was difficult for Chester to keep her in line some times, and this was certainly one of those instances. This was serious leverage that she could hold over him if she could tell the resistance who he was. However, it was that same seriousness that made it all the more difficult for Jezah to overcome.

At last, Jezah’s face relaxed and the order took full effect.

“Very well,” she said. “Anonymity will be your best protection for now. You can decide what to do next if we make it past the space port.”

“Good,” Chester sighed in relief.

There were only a few more hours before they would arrive at the moon and they still needed time to get everything ready. Weapons and ammunition needed to be disguised but still easily accessed. Armor needed to be put on beneath their regular clothes without looking too obvious.

“Not long now,” he told himself and got back to work.

Like Jezah said, he’d worry about his next steps if they made it past the lunar security.